Ahq Esports ( AHQ )

Roster : “YanLi”, “W1nner”, “Cc”, “SR”

Throughout the 2019 season, Taiwan-based Ahq Esports have been a tale of two teams — In the online phases of the Master League ( PML ) they’ve been stomping everyone in their path, finishing each of the online stages with a 80+ point lead over the next team.

And then there’s Ahq on LAN — inconsistent, making odd decisions for rotations, losing players in the mid-game and playing down to their competition. Sure, they’ve finished top 2 in each of the Master League LANs, but those results have been underwhelming considering their expectations.

Global Championship however is a opportunity for Ahq to redeem themselves — their core of Hsu “Cc” Che-Jui , Wu “Milk” Su-Lin and Tsai “SR” Hung-Wei have been playing each other for nearly a year now, now being supported by Peng “YanLi” Yan-Li. Ever since PGI, Ahq have always represented Taiwan at the global stage, slowly improving their ranks amongst the best in the world, but only time will tell whether they can lead their region to Oakland Arena.

Afreeca Freecs Fatal ( AFF )

Roster : “Style”, “NN”, “Shad0w”, “Lambu”

Afreeca Freecs Fatal is returning to the interregional play after participating in the Faceit Global Summit and having a weaker result in the PKL Phase 2 ( 7th place ). The roster of AFF is the same as in London — with their captain and most experienced shotcaller on the SK scene, Oh “Style” Gyeong-cheol, leading the consistent firepower coming from Han “NN” Min-Gyu, Lee “Shad0w” Seung-sun and Chan “Lambu” Hyuk Park — but instead of “NN” being a huge factor in AFF’s teamfight strength, team’s looking more balanced with all players bringing similar power to play, and their part in AFF’s covering a huge amount of the ground.

Once again, what likely will make or break Freecs run in California will be their game-to-game performance — historically they’ve been one of the best teams in a 48-game format of the Korea League but they haven’t delivered the same results in the Asia Invitational ( 10th place ) and in the Faceit Global Summit ( 14th, even after winning the first match of Finals ).

Athletico Esports ( ATH )

Roster : “Jouxy”, “Zoidm8”, “Xtreme”, “Fludd”

After their surprising run in the GLL Grand Slam, with only FaZe overtaking them in the final match of that tournament, and a dominant run in the Regular Season of OCE Phase 3, it was expected that Athletico will cruise through the Regional Qualifier to book their spot at the Global Championship. However the team lead by Tenzin “Zoidm8” Wallis had a up-and-down start to both days of the LAN Regionals, and in the end they had to end up satisfied with the second-place finish.

That being said, Athletico is still a formidable threat, especially in the late-game ( post-Phase 5 ) — team’s core of IGL “Zoidm8”, Russell “Xtreme” Walters and Lachlan “Fludd” Thompson have all finished in top 5 of damage and top 7 of kills at the Regional Qualifier, and while their superstar fragger in “Luke12” have decided to join Lazarus after the Grand Slam, ATH have replaced him with another strong OCE fragger and former Incognito player in Jordan “Jouxy” de Joux. And while the earlier mentioned up-and-down results in first rounds of the day can give them problems in the Group Stage format, they should be a serious contender for the top positions once they’ll make it through them.

CrowCrowd ( CC )

Roster : “Tiizku”, “Mise”, “Nookie”, “Teme”

With a 5th-place finish in the Phase 3 of Europe League, the all-Finnish squad of CrowCrowd have secured their spot at the PGC and their second appearance on the global stage, the first one being at the Faceit Global Summit, where they finished 9th back under the Winstrike banner.

The organisation wasn’t the only change happening for the team ahead of Phase 3, as they’ve also replaced “Jorzki” with Miska “Mise” Malkamäki, which made a quick impact on the EU stage as one the best uprising shooters ( 4th in kills, 12th in Damage, 14th in knocks in PEL Phase 3). With “Mise” and Olli “Tiikzu” Saarikoski as team’s fragging power, a experienced IGL in Teemu “Teme” Kokko and their form on the uprise by the end of Phase 3, CrowCrowd can contend for a decent placement in the Grand Finals.

DeToNator ( DTN )

Roster : “WICK2D”, “ISCO”, “Aqua5”, “Hikari”

Detonator have made their place as one of the best teams in Korea throughout the 2019 season, with Kim “Wick2d” Jin-Hyeong leading the team as their shotcaller, a duo of Kim “Hikari” Dong-Hwan and Je “ISCO” Jo-Hin providing a consistent firepower at the front and arguably one of the best support players in the world in Yu “Aqua5” Sang-Ho covering their backs.

That being said, there were a few catches in Detonator’s performance this year — In PKL Phase 1, DTN have led the league for the most of the first half before choking themselves out of the spot at the Faceit Global Summit, finishing 5th at the end. In PKL Phase 2, while they’ve finished 3rd overall, DTN was mixing great weeks with a mediocre ones and couldn’t challenge Gen.G for the title. In PKL Phase 3, DTN was struggling due to “ISCO” being suspended for the first three weeks due to a bad behaviour. And then there’s “Wick2d”, known for staying away from the team in a lot of situations and/or getting punished for his rotations and decisioning.

With all of that, Detonator is a personal wild-card of the tournament — If everything clicks for them. they’re capable of a finish in the top 5, but they can bomb out of the tournament in the Group Stage as well.

Four Angry Men ( 4AM )

Roster : “We1less”, “Luuu”, “Forever”, “ZGG01”

With a victory in the PCL Summer Season Playoffs by a virtue of a kill tiebreaker, 4AM have not only ended their sixteen-month championship drought, but booked their place at the Global Championship, their return to the global stage since finishing 7th in the Faceit Global Summit.

Their last international run is mostly remember by a infamous grenade play made by Sun “Cpt” Yu-Ze against 17Gaming. Since then however Cpt have been benched to make a place for a former star of JTG in Wei “xxxLu” Daying. “Luuuu” have quickly proved his place in the team, forging a formidable fragging duo with Wang “ZGG01” Xin, backed up by their IGL and one of the world’s best grenade specialists in Wei “GodV / We1less” Zhen and Wu “Forever” Zheng.

As always, 4AM will have both the support and huge expectations coming from their fanbase, arguably the biggest fanbase in the PUBG proscene today, but they’ve broke their drought earlier in Phase 3, and they’ll be eager to bring the PGC championship trophy to China.

Genesis ( GEN )

Roster : “Kaymind”, “Nerf”, “Pr0phie”, “Hwinn”

Genesis have consistently performed on the North American proscene all year around, finishing 2nd in both the Phase 1 and Phase 2 of NPL back as a part of Cloud9 organisation, and 3rd in the Phase 3 under their current Genesis banner. Their results on the global stage this year have been underwhelming though, finishing 12th in the Faceit Global Summit and 11th in the GLL Grand Slam.

Nonetheless, Genesis is still an aggressive, kill-hunting team, with a powerful frontline due of Thierry “Kaymind” Kaltenback ( 1.50 kills, 1.43 knocks, 261.1 DMG per game ) and Magno “Pr0phie” Ramos ( though “Pr0phie” have been struggling for a while, a lot of it due to his hyper-aggressive positioning ), although the rest of their roster is also known for their strong personal performance. Heading into the PGC, their fighting abilities will likely be on a display since the first match, as Genesis may end up contested for their center drop locations ( Pochinki, Pecado, Bootcamp ).

Lazarus ( LZR )

Roster : “aLOW”, “Purdykurty”, “Uncivil”, “Luke12”

After finishing as the runners-up of the Faceit Global Summit, Shoot To Kill roster have been signed by a Lazarus organization, aiming to repeat their performance from Phase 1. However after finishing only 7th in the NPL Phase 2, the team led by Kurtis “Purdykurty” Bond have decided to replace the player-coach brother duo of “Adam” and “Didz” with Australian-based Luke “Luke12” Newey and a new coach in “MachineGunner”.

That changes have made a quick turnaround for Lazarus, as they’ve finished the Phase 3 of NPL in 2nd place, thanks to their consistency over all three maps and league’s highest amount of kills and damage dealt ( 255 kills total, 934.9 DMG per game ), made possible mostly by a combined force of “Luke12” ( 1.3K, 1.13 knocks, 297.4 DMG per game ), Aaron “aLOW” Lommen ( 1.37K, 1.2 knock, 258.4 ) and Timothy “Uncivil” Ebarb ( 1.19 K ). And while Lazarus have been struggling with getting a high placements finishes throughout the phase, they are considered as one of the main candidates for the Global Championship.

OGN Entus Force ( OGNF )

Roster : “Seongjang”, “indigo”, “kAyle”, “DoYa”

Over the last year, OGN Entus Force have always been close but never close enough of winning it all, finishing 2nd in the PKL 2018 Season 2 and PAI 2019 and 4th in both PKL 2019 Phase 1 and Faceit Global Summit. After a 10th place finish in the Phase 2 of Korea League, their first tournament outside of top 5 since June of 2018, it seemed like a team lead by Seong “Seongjang” Jang-hwan may not be able to end their trophy drought any time soon.

But then PKL Phase 3 happened, and OGN Force looked better than ever — while their new fourth player in Kim “DoYa” Do-Kyung have proved himself as a strong support player, it was the long-time core of “Seongjang”, Jeong”kAyle” Su-yong and Seol “Indigo” Do-Hoon, all performing with >1.15 Kill, >1 knock and >200 dmg per game in Phase 3, that have lead their team to the championship title and Korea’s top seed for the PGC.

With strong mix of fragging power, their placement finish consistency ( 8 wins and 20 top 4 finishes total in Phase 3), and a excellent consistency over all maps ( PKL Phase 3 1st on Erangel and Miramar, 6th on Sanhok ), the expectations are high for OGN Force, as they’re considered as Korea’s top contender for the Global Championship.

QM Gaming ( QM )

Roster : “JiYy”, “Yizz”, “L1gEEE”, “WuFeng”

QM Gaming have stepped up their performance in the months leading to the PGC, finishing 2nd in the PCL Summer Regular Season, 6th in the PCL Summer Playoffs, before clutching their way to the 2nd place in the China Masters and a spot at the Global Championship.

QM’s playstyle focuses on a early rotations to the more central positions of the first circles, sometimes with Yang “WuFeng” Yi moving away of the team to look for other positions, before switching to a slower-paced play on the edges of the circles in the later phases. As for their firepower, while all their players have shown their potential throughout the year, main strength of them is usually coming from the duo of Ye “Yizz” Xiang and Wang “JiYy” Zhi Kang. And while QM heads to California as one of the less-known teams, they’ve been doing well in the recent months and shouldn’t been taken lightly by anyone.

Sting Divine Esports ( DV )

Roster : “Nickyyy”, “Leviz”, “Jettt”, “Turtle”

After a year, Divine Esports will make their return to the international stage — even though Divine have won the 2018 JIB SEA Championship and 2019 SEA Championship Phase 1, they weren’t able to represent their region at the Asia Invitational 2019 and Faceit Global Summit due to visas problems. And while visas have struck Vietnamese PUBG again by rejecting the visas of Divine’s Đoàn “Aleo” Minh Trí and Sky Gaming Daklak ( more on that later ), this time it didn’t stopped the rest of Divine’s roster.

The core players from Divine’s 6th-place run in the PGL Fall Invitational 2018 — team’s IGL and leading fragger in Phase 3 in Nguyễn “Leviz” Hữu Đoàn, main fragger in Phạm “Jettt” Đăng Khoa, and team’s captain in Ngô “Nickyyy” Thanh Hùng — are still leading the team’s banner, with Phùng “Turtle” Mạnh Hiếu backing them up in Los Angeles in the place of “Aleo”. And while we haven’t seen Divine playing against best teams in the world for a while, Vietnam’s 4th place in the PUBG Nations Cup ( with “Leviz” as team’s leader ) have fired up the hopes of the Vietnamese fans ahead of the PGC.

SunSister ( SSS )

Roster : “CrazySam”, “Kendesu”, “gabha”, “Fiachan”

The two-time champions of the Japan Series, SunSister haven’t been able to continue their winning ways for most of the 2019 season, finishing “only” 6th and 5th in the PJS Season 2 and Season 3 respectively. In order to return to the top, the team have decided to trade Hiroto “CiNVe” Takahara for Rascal Jester’s Yoshihisa “Kendesu” Yamada, and sign “Fiachan” to the roster ahead of Phase 3 ( PJS Season 4 ).

Even with a great all-season performance coming from Sho “CrazySam” Akimoto ( 1.6 kills per game, 245.1 damage per game ), a monster fragging from “Kendesu” in second half of Season 4 ( 30 kills, 24 knocks, 4003 damage in 15 games ), and their dominance over Japanese teams at Miramar ( 133 points, 11.1pt per game ), SunSister have clinched the second place in the league and a ticket to the PGC on the last day with two 16-kill bomb Chicken Dinners ( 22K win on Miramar, 16K on Erangel ). And while SunSister is considered as one of the weakest teams in the field, a single strong day will be enough for them to give the higher-ranked teams a run for their money.

Team SoloMid ( TSM )

Roster : “Rawryy”, “Iroh”, “MykLe”, “Gustav”

One of the few western organisations involved in the PUBG proscene since day one, TSM have always aimed at the top of the leaderboards, but was never able to get on the next level, falling short at all times. That continued throughout the Phases 1 and 2 of 2019 Europe League, in both of which TSM have started very strong, but slowly lost their momentum as the leagues progressed and ended not even making in to the PUBG Classics.

In the PEL Phase 3 however the team captained by Rory “Rawryy” Logue have overcame their demons and managed to challenge for the championship crown, falling in the final week only behind the powerhouses in FaZe and Liquid. While the team didn’t changed their playstyle a lot between Phases 2 and 3, TSM have improved by signing Ömer “Iroh” Çakıldeveli, adding even more firepower to backup the powerful duo of team’s IGL in Gustav “Gustav” Blønd, and Michael “MykLe” Wake in the process, and Dylan “Didz” Didiano as team’s coach to improve their tactical gameplay and team’s overall play as a unit. Their biggest challenge is yet to come though as TSM now heads to the PGC to prove their place amongst the best teams in the world.

Team Liquid ( TL )

Roster : “Jeemzz”, “Sambty”, “Ibiza”, “Jembty”

We know what we can expect from one of the Superteams of PUBG — Liquid is known for their explosive playstyle, with all their players known for their plays and being admired by fans all over the world, and even if the team have a weaker period ( Weeks 3 and 4 of PEL Phase 3 comes to mind ), they’ll always come back as strong as ever and challenge for the titles at the biggest stages.

That being said, Liquid will have a huge pressure on their back heading to California — the current roster finished in the top 4 of each of the PEL Phases and both Global Summit and Grand Slam, but they haven’t been able to win one so far. On top of that, ever since the start of the year Team Liquid and their players have been stating that their ultimate goal is to win the Global Championship, and any other result will look as a disappointment in the eyes of the team and their fans.

The Rumblers ( RUM )

Roster : “LosHD”, “Microfry”, “Waldoe”, “Cherrypoppins”

As many of you know, SouthEast Asia was supposed to have a third team at the PGC, which was taken by a Vietnamese Sky Gaming Daklak with a 3rd-place finish in the PSC Phase 3. Unfortunately, Sky have been rejected of their visas to US, and neither of the next top-ranked SEA teams ( Victim Rise, Daytrade Gaming and Arkangel ) have been able to secure their ones in time. With a open spot in the PGC, PUBG Esports needed to quickly fill the void with a team that could make it to LA quickly and was close to making it to the PGC themselves, and decided to invite NA’s The Rumblers.

With a 4th place finish in the NPL Phase 2, and a 7th place in NPL Phase 3, The Rumblers have finished just behind Ghost Gaming in the NPL Championship Point Ranking and a direct spot in the Global Championship. However, they have received a second change as a SEA replacement team and will try their best to show their place amongst the best teams in the PUBG proscene with a slow-paced playstyle on the edges of the circle, being more conservative when it comes to picking fights, and usually picking up the pace in the late-game. Leading The Rumblers, both as their primary shotcaller and team’s main fragger will be Lari-Pekka “LosHD” Hopiavuori, which while haven’t been as dominant with his performance as in the NPL Phase 2, have still been leading the team when it comes to firepower, being often backed up by his teammates in Agron “Waldoe” Jashari, Jeffrey “Microfry” Gonzalez and Alexander “CherryPoppins” Penner.

WClick

Roster : “RiboxD”, “Harald”, “SzylzEN”, “Ragnar”

WClick roster, formerly playing under the banners of Bitloft and Japish Japish, will represent the Latin America region once again at the international stage after finishing 6th in the GLL Grand Slam as the champions of ESL LA League Season 4.

While WClick’s overall fighting power is weaker compared to the other LATAM representative in Red Canids and most of the participants, they can count on their players consistent performance ( all around or over 1 kill per game ), their stable form on Erangel and Sanhok, and on their ace fragger, considered by many as the best player in the region right now — Nahuel “SzylzEN” Balseiro ( 93 kills, 95 knocks, 20661 DMG in LPPS Phase 3 ). Will it be enough for WClick to perform well on the international stage and make it to the Oakland Arena, only time will tell.

PGC Predictions

At a current point, making the prediction on who will win the Global Championship ( and getting the PGC Pick’Em skins by guessing them right ) is very tough, due to PGC being the most stacked PUBG tournament to date in terms of teams strengths, and due to the tournament unpredictable format — One very good day from a weaker team in the Group Stage and/or Semi-Finals can lead them to Oakland, while one struggling day can put even the biggest of favourites on a brink of elimination.

That being said, while there are few strong candidates coming from China, North America, SEA and Oceania, what I’ll look most forward is a storyline that have been building on since the Global Invitational — Europe vs South Korea. The immovable powerhouse region, dominating the competitive proscene since early days, against the unstoppable force, working their way from the lower ranks to the top. The likes of FaZe, Liquid and Na’Vi against the likes of OGN Force, Gen.G and T1. Barring a upset from another region, whoever wins this battle will end up 2019 as the best region in the competitive PUBG. And as much as I’ve been cheering on the Korean teams over the last two years, I think that FaZe Clan is the biggest candidate to take the PGC crown and a 1,000,000 USD first-place reward.

Tune in to the PGC, with each day starting at 5pm Pacific / 2am CET / 10am KST, through the official PGC streams on twitch.tv/playbattlegrounds, youtube.com/pubgesports or to the PGC Watch Page, and support the event by buying the PGC in-game items through the duration of the event ( with 50% of the revenue being distributed to the participant teams ), and by participating in the PGC Pick’Em Challenge. Also, you can check out the detailed preview about the KR teams by Paperthin ( one of the PGC EN casters ), or the pre-event statistics, made by Panned.GG and Nparadizm/Make My Day.