Controversy erupted on the first day of the second Super Weekend for the PUBG Mobile World League (PMWL) East after an alleged team-up incident between two Thai teams. Tencent later announced it didn’t find the two teams guilty of any wrongdoing.
The incident happened in the early game of the first match on Erangel yesterday. While going around a compound towards the north-west of Shelter, King of Gamers (KOG) managed to get three knockouts on VALDUS The Murder’s players.
With just one remaining player, whose location was exposed as he was throwing smoke grenades to provide cover for his teammates, this could have been an easy squad-wipe for KOG, who still had four members standing.
Related: Scores and standings for week 2 of PMWL East season zero
KOG, however, chose to rotate away instead of confirming all the kills and picking up the crucial points. While rotating, KOG did pick up one kill but left the other players. There was no clear reason for them to do so. The safe zone was immediately next to them and they weren’t taking fire from any other team.
VALDUS’ Manun “aRMJoNe” Yaepsungnoen, the sole surviving member, revived two of his teammates.
This led to numerous fans speculating whether KOG had just allowed VALDUS to survive. Adding to the speculation, both teams are from the same region, Thailand.
PUBG Mobile Esports’ officials investigated the incident later and found the players to be innocent. This was announced only on the Thai stream of the PMWL East today. The casters announced that officials investigated the camera recordings and microphone voice during the incident and found that neither of the teams indulged in any unfair play.
It is possible that KOG rotated away as they didn’t want to waste time getting kills in the early game. The team could have wanted to get into a more strategic position on the map while they were facing little aggression. It could also be because they had a lack of intel on the area around them and didn’t want to get third-partied while confirming the kills on VALDUS.
In the match, KOG ultimately placed ninth while VALDUS came in 12th position.
