No single strategy to the victory - similiar to the Phase 1 of PKL, the top of the standings features teams with different approach to playing the game and racking up the points - aggressive, kill-hungry teams ( Gen.G, VSG, DTN, GRF Black), more passive teams, focusing to bring as many players as they can to the late-game and rack up placement points ( OP Rangers ), and lastly teams mixing well both survival and kill points ( Quadro, OGN teams and Danawa DPG ).

Contenders teams are ( somewhat ) on the PKL level - before the start of the season there was a question about how will the teams entering the PKL from the mostly-amateur Korea Contenders can fight with the best that Korea have to offer.

As of now, we can say that yes, they aren’t a push-overs so far - Griffin Black is within a striking distance of a spot at the MET Asia Series, while the other teams ( Mediabridge, World Class and E-Stats ) are battling with the lower-ranked PKL teams to secure their spot in the League’s next phase.

With general thoughts out of the way, let’s recap how each of the 24 PKL teams are looking up right now.

Afreeca Freecs Ares - after a weak first two weeks of the season, it looked like Ares will, once again, have to defend their place in the league. Week three however was a different story - AFA was one of the best teams in PKL that week, with 70 points scored, and finally started to rack up good placements on top of the kills. Time will tell however, if that was a fluke or will AFA continue their rise in the rankings.

Afreeca Freecs Fatal - first half of Phase 2 for the team lead by “Style” was the opposite of their sister team’s one- AFF started well, making it to the Top 5 after Week 2, but fell apart the following week with 33pt week ( half of it coming from 3rd place, 11 kill game on Wednesday ). Nonetheless, with a weaker perfomances of both the entire team at Miramar ( 51pt v 99pt at Erangel ), and their star player in “NN” ( 1.04 round kill ratio v 1.56 in Phase 1 ), there’s quite a room for Fatal to improve and possibly contend for their second PKL title.

APK Prince - a decision to keep the roster intact after barely staying in the PKL in Phase 1 is turning out as a great decision so far. “Black9" ( 1.58 KR ) and “Leclo” ( 1.33 KR ) are in their peak, his teammates “KIMGONI” and “Voici” are also at the 1.0 KR so far, and APK is one of the teams to beat at Erangel ( 108pt, 9pt per game ). While their mediocre results in the Week 3 and a up-and-down Miramar games can concern, APK should be a contender at least for the MET Asia Series spot.

DPG Danawa - so far this phase, Danawa have been just too inconsistent, most of the time either getting a placement finish but not racking up kills, or getting a few kills only to make a questionable rotation and fall apart. While Week 3 showed that Danawa can be a threat to everyone on a good day ( 82 points that week ), they have to prove that they are a top-tier team in the upcoming matchdays.

DPG EVGA - for the third straight league in a row, DPG’s second team is sitting around the middle of the standings, having good rounds under their belt but struggling to keep that form throughout the season. A potential for DERP ( still better and easier name than current one ) to be a clear top-10 team is there, but a stability for both team’s roster and results will be needed.

Detonator.Korea - first two weeks were just alright for the DTN - they did got a good results, but they couldn’t find a consistency throughout their games. Week 3 Monday was a different thing however - a record-tying day with 65 points and two chicken dinners. That day was a sign to everyone in PKL - Detonator is back to their form.

And they’ve proved it on Week 3 Sunday.

Let’s be serious, by the end of this phase we either will see DTN finally making to the international event or a collapse and a another chapter to their failure story. Prepare your popcorns, this’ll be interesting anyway.

Element Mystic - it’s clear that after a roster changes they’ve made after Phase 1, this is a rebuilding stage for EM. They’ve been struggling so far, but a good Week 3 is giving their fans a hope for a future. But as for the Phase 2, I think they’ll settle down in the lower half of the standings, not having to be worried about the relegation.

E-Stats Esports - first of the PKC promoted teams, eT haven’t been doing good so far, due to their struggles in their positioning and rotations. They’ve shown a signs of hope in Week 3, but they’ve to show their long-term improvement in order to defend their spot in the PKL.

Gen.G - well, it’s finally happening, Gen.G have a top-tier, all-around team once again. Team’s been the most consistent team in scoring at both Erangel and Miramar, “Pio” is still THE best slayer in Korea, “Loki” have returned to his prime form from Gen.G Gold and “Esth3r” have improved his shotcalling on top of being a Top 5 killer this phase.

But there’s a catch to that - “Taemin” been struggling in his play ever since joining the team before start of 2019 season, and Gen.G can go from a 10+ point games to really weak games in a instant. And with stacked top, consistency can make a difference between Gen.G’s first championship since Berlin and a collapse.

Griffin Black - GRFB is propably the biggest positive surprise of the Phase 2 - “2heart” and “Rage” are both at over 1.2 KR and 250+ DMG per round in their debut PKL season, newly-joined “Ohjungje” is having a career resurgence and they’re monsters at Erangel ( 111pt, 9.25pt per round ). They’ve been struggling with their play at Miramar though, and improvement there will decide whether GRF Black can contend for a MET spot.

Griffin Red - wait, you’re here ???

I’ve honestly forgot about you, because in my opinion …you’re just here. Sure, you got 2 Chicken Dinners and two 3rd place finishes, but aside from that you got 8 points from 6 placement finishes, and Red’s teamfighting have been really weak. With that, GRF Red will have to battle for their stay in the remaining of the Phase 2.

Kingsroad - for the unsigned underdogs of PKL, first half of the Phase 2 is something they would like to forget about quickly. Their strategical play have been terrible so far, and a weak form of their players doesnt’ allow them to counter that issue with a ton of kill points. KSR needs to deal with them ASAP, as the relegation to PKC is on their tail.

Lavega Esports - there’s not a lot of changes in Lavega’s situation in comparision to Phase 1. They’re still a good team that racks up a lot of placement finishes ( 10 top 4 finishes so far ), but a lack of a star player that could rack up a ton of kills and inability to fully take a advantage of so many placements ( mostly due to only 1–2 players left in late game ) keeps them away from being a Top 8 team.

Mediabridge - after dominating PKC in the Phase 1, there was a lot of expectations as MBG was heading to the PKL. At least for now, they didn’t managed to get close to fullfilling them - aside from “Justice” MBG have been struggling in terms of fragging, and their strategical play have been lacking in the mid-game. With that, MBG will have to battle for their spot in the league during the rest of Phase 2.

Team MVP - I think there’s not a lot to say about them. Just a lot of up-and-down results so far, most of the team is doing alright fragging-wise but “JuNe” have been disappointing ( 9 kills ) and their mid-game is struggling. I don’t think they’ll get relegated, but this won’t be a good result for MVP too.

OGN Entus Ace - after a terrible 2018 Season 2 and 2019 Phase 1 OGN Ace is slowly moving up in the standings. “Joy” have rebounded after his slump in Phase 1 and is leading the team in fragging ( 1.2 KR ), while Ace’s pre-Phase 2 additions in “Raeng” and “Alphaca” aren’t a game-changers but they’re doing their job. Ace shouldn’t contend for a spot at the Global Event yet, but they can be a challenger in the future.

OGN Entus Force - for the team lead by “Seongjang”, Week 1 ( 21 points ) was a disaster and a wake-up call. Since then, Force have returned to their old form, with 3 Chicken Dinners, all players over or close to a 1.0 KR, and showing a strong play even after losing their home location in Pochinki to Detonator. Only one question remains for Force now - Can they end their year-long championship drought ?

OP Gaming Ardor - long story short, they’re really bad. Their rotational play is bad, entire team is bad at fragging ( 1.46 Kill per round ), and even if Ardor makes it to the placements, they can’t even rack up points there ( 6/24 games in top 8, 17pt total ). With 53 points separating them and the first non-releagtion spot, the only thing that can save Ardor from tanking their way to the OGN studio is a miracle.

OP Gaming Rangers - the reigning PKL and ( de facto ) world champions are doing pretty good so far - “Menteul” continues to land his shots ( 1.29 KR ), team’s consistency in scoring placements is as great as ever ( 20/24 in top 8, 10 in top 4, 81pt so far ) and even if they have a bad game or day, they bounce back ( 53 pt in week 1, 59 in week 2, 56 in week 3 ).

And the scary thing is that this may not be their peak yet - Rangers are quite behind when it comes to scoring kills in difference to the current leaders ( 87 kills so far, teams above OPGR have 110 or more kills ), and if “DG98" and/or “Giken” start fragging up like they did in the past, Rangers can power through their way to defend their crown.

Team Quadro - team lead by “Bravo” was considered as a outside contender heading into phase 2, but for now they’ve been exceeding their expectations. Quadro’s have found the high-perfomance consistency that they were lacking in phase 1, “Echo” have been a top 5 fragger this phase so far, while his teammates help him consistently win teamfights, with all players over or around 1 KR. Heading into the second half of Phase 2, Quadro will have a opportunity to not only make it to MET, but to contend for a PKL trophy.

Team Square - honestly, I don’t know what to think about them. They’ve shown a lot of potential, with team having a pretty alright fragging as for a rookie roster, and they’ve had a great Week 2 ( 61 points ). On the other side, their shotcalling and rotations have been clumsy so far, and mentioned earlier Week 2 is the only reason Square isn’t in relegation zone right now. With that, I can see Square either proving doubters wrong and successfully defend their spot in PKL, or collapse and tank their way to the PKC.

SK Telecom T1 - SKT’s PUBG division unfortunately continues to remain as a middle-of-the-pack team in PKL. Sure, they’ve shown that they have a great games, and trio of “Adder”, “Jefflocka” and “Akad” have all became a PKL-level players under the wings of “Ccarter”. But there’s still quite a lot left for T1 to improve- team’s fourth players ( “Ted” and “Treasure” ) need a lot of development, their Miramar play is horrible ( 35pt in 12 games ), and team’s consistency and rotations is still lacking.

VSG - nothing new in a team lead by “Starlord”- VSG is still a fragging machine with all players above 1 KR and a total 1000 DMG per round, this time with “Hwan2da” leading the team in that case ( 1.83 KR ), but their placement inconsistency ( 9/24 in top 8, 8 in top 4 ) and quite weak Miramar perfomance ( 76pt, 46 of them coming from 2 games ) isn’t allowing them to run away from the rest of PKL. And just like in the past, the only thing that stops VSG from becoming a dynasty are themselves.

World Class - As the amateur team playing in the PKL, WC isn’t doing badly right now. They don’t have a game-by-game consistency, as they mix great round with bad ones on a daily basis, but when they make it to the late-game they rack up much needed points, and when it comes to fragging they’re keeping up with the rest of the league. Due to that, I think they should stay in the PKL for the next phase.

PKL Phase 2 continues every Monday, Wednesday and Saturdays at 7pm KST / 12pm CEST / 3am PDT, live on the following streams :

EN stream- https://twitch.tv/paperthinhere ( check https://twitter.com/paperthinhere for a info when EN stream will be live )

KR stream- https://twitch.tv/pubgkorea or https://play.afreecatv.com/pubg

Multiview with all map and team streams- https://pkl.afreecatv.com