Stalwart Esports announced today that it has signed the roster of Team Freestyle for the upcoming PUBG Mobile Pro League (PMPL) South Asia season two.
This comes after Tencent banned Indian players from participating in the PMPL after PUBG Mobile was banned in India. The Indian Ministry of Electronics and IT banned the game along with 117 other applications on Sept. 2 for allegedly “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.”
As a result, Stalwart Esports along with 16 other Indian teams lost their slot in the PMPL South Asia. Today’s announcement, however, will allow Stalwart to participate in the Pro League as Team Freestyle is a Pakistani roster.
Team Freestyle is one of the most decorated teams from Pakistan. They won the spring split of the PUBG Mobile Club Open (PMCO) Pakistan and qualified for season zero of the World League (PMWL) East. In the PMWL, the team couldn’t prove themselves and finished in the 17th position.
In the fall split of the PMCO Pakistan which concluded last month, Team Freestyle failed to put up a good performance as well. They could only manage a ninth place finish, failing to qualify for the PMPL South Asia. As the team has now signed with Stalwart Esports, they will be able to play the PMPL South Asia.
“No one cares for the runners up team,” said STEfsMalik, captain of the team. “Fans only remember the team who makes an impact. And in this PMPL, we’ll be remembered as the team who won the championship.”
So far, Stalwart Esports is the only Indian organization that has signed a roster from another South Asian region to compete in the PMPL. It remains to be seen if other teams follow suit.
