Hello, and welcome to the Pattrick’s Thoughts — a irregular concept, in which I go through what have happened recently, and provide my analysis and comments about it. Just a few hours ago, PUBG Corporation have announced its details for the 2020 Global Series, and there’s a lot of things to point out from that article.

Global Series format – keeping the good, repairing the bad

Similar to the 2019 Global Championship, which format was used as a starting base for PGS, each of the Global Series events will feature 32 teams, and will start with a Group Stage, and conclude with a 16-team Grand Finals. And while the duration of the event has been cut from 3 to 2 weeks, and the Semi Finals stage was scrapped, the amount of playdays was expanded from 8 to 9, including a 3-day Grand Finals.

Overall, I think that this is a pretty good format change from PUBG Corp. - it seems like each of the tournament stages will be played in a Best-of-12 series (BO18 for the Finals), which is an improvement from a 6-match Groups and Eliminations at the PGC, and any change that minimizes the effect of RNG on the tournament is a plus for me. Additionally, a shorter event duration should help both the PUBG Corp. and the teams when it comes to the costs, and help them get closer to a much-desired profits.

Circuit format - PGS or bust

Ever since the first details of the PGS were announced back in December, it seemed like it’ll be very important for the players and orgs to make their place into the 2020 Global Series events from the financial standpoint. Today, that statement seems even more true, as we now know that the EU and Americas Qualifiers for PGS: Berlin will likely have no prize pool at all, and that the results of the PGS tournaments Final Stages will decide the 16 teams invited for the 2020 Global Championship.

Now let’s look at this situation from the view of, let’s say, FaZe Clan. With exception of a proper GLL seasons, missing out on the PGS will end up with a harder path to the PGC, and lowered exposure and revenue for the org over the span of few months. And no matter how big an org and their PUBG following can be, they won’t go on forever if they end up bleeding their funds with no profits at all.

Speaking of the money…

Revenue Share - a step forward?

It’s been revealed by the Corp, that each of the PGS events will feature a 500,000 USD prizepool (2 million for the PGC), and that each of the participants will receive a minimum of 20,000 USD per event. That’s a positive, as it guarantees some revenue for the teams, even if they bomb out of the tournament in the groups.

However, that comes with a catch , as the revenue percentage from in-game event items will be lowered. Instead of the 25% of the revenue going directly towards the prizepool, and another 25% making the money pool of Pick’Em Challenge, as it was the case of PGC, it’ll now be dropped down to 10% each, with further 5% being added towards the PGC2020 prizepool. As a example, here’s how things look in a case of 1 million USD revenue: