The defending champions of the PUBG Mobile Pro League (PMPL) South Asia have failed to qualify for season two. GXR Celtz had a devastating run in the PUBG Mobile Club Open (PMCO) India fall split finals today and finished in ninth place. But only the top five teams qualified for the PMPL South Asia season two.
GXR Celtz received a direct invite to the finals based on their previous split’s performance. They couldn’t keep up with the new teams that have emerged from the open-for-all PMCO, however. The team got only one chicken dinner in the 12 matches and were inconsistent throughout the weekend. This performance effectively puts the team out of all official competitions in 2020.
Related: GXR Celtz finds not being invited to season 2 of PMPL South Asia “unfair”
The other invited team to the finals, Team Tamilas, also couldn’t make it to the PMPL South Asia season two after placing sixth. They fell short by just four points.
Here are the overall standings of the PMCO India finals. The top five teams have qualified for the Pro League.
GXR Celtz’s journey has been filled with ups and downs. In the previous split of the PMCO India, they placed ninth as well. But unlike the current split where only the top four teams made it to the PMPL, in the spring split it was the top nine teams.
No one really paid much attention to the underdog team during the league stage of the PMPL. Celtz stayed in the bottom half of the rankings table for the entirety of the league. They managed to qualify for the finals, however, after placing 13th.
Celtz were a whole different squad in the finals. They got an early lead which they maintained throughout the finals. They beat some of the best teams in the region such as TSM Entity, Orange Rock Esports, and Fnatic to take the trophy and qualified for the PUBG Mobile World League (PMWL) East season zero.
The South Asian champions were also consistent in the PMWL league play and placed seventh. Celtz faltered in the finals, however, and could only manage a 14th-place finish. Fans did get to see the potential the team holds in some matches as they placed in the top five in five instances of the finals.
Even after being the champion, GXR Celtz didn’t get a direct invite to season two of the PMPL. A representative from the team had previously told Dot Esports that this was because the invites were sent on the basis of the league stage rankings of the PMPL and not the finals. Only 12 teams got a direct invite to season two. Unfortunately for Cetlz, they placed 13th. The representative from the team told Dot Esports that they found this criterion “unfair.”
Correction Aug. 31 11:45pm CT: An earlier version of this article stated that Team Tamilas fell short by five points. Considering that the team had a higher number of kills, they required just four points to make it to the PMPL South Asia season two.
