PUBG esports wish list for 2018

It seems like 2017 was the year of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

The smash hit battle royale game launched in Steam early access in March and gradually improved over time to finally be released this past week as a 1.0 product, just recently reaching over 30 million players.

PUBG has gone through a lot of changes, but the game is still in its infancy when it comes to competition. A few major events and online tournaments showed that PUBG has promise, but we have some wishes for competitive PUBG in 2018 to help take it to the next level.

Utilize both maps

For PUBG’s first two esports events, gamescom’s Invitational and IEM Oakland, Erangel was the only playable map. Soon after the IEM event, however, the new desert map of Miramar released.

Adding Miramar into the map pool will add variety and make teams have to master both maps, as well as prevent things from stagnating.

Less teams in-game

Major PUBG tournaments have been using 20 teams and 100 players on Erangel. Due to the map’s size and how much water plays a role, 16 teams and 64 players might work out better, as seen in certain online tournaments.

Player listen-ins

In a game like PUBG where teams can be at the mercy of RNG, it’s important to know what decision-making is going on behind the scenes.

Why did this team decide to push into Gatka instead of Georgopol? What was the thought process behind hugging the blue instead of setting up in the middle of the circle?

These insights would allow for more information on the broadcasts, but it would also give a more personal and up close look at the teams and personalities of the game.

More optimizations

Let’s be honest about PUBG for a second. The game has come a long way since it first entered early access in March, but there are plenty of issues that still persist to this day.

Sure, the framerate and overall playability of the game has improved a ton, but vaulting and climbing still tends to be buggy, there are rubberbanding issues at the beginning of matches a lot of the time, and there are still crashing issues, among other problems.

PUBG may be a 1.0 full release now, but there’s still a ton of work to be done when it comes to optimizing the game to run and perform the best it can, even on LAN.

Improved spectator tools

The spectator camera for PUBG is quite laggy sometimes and can also be highly inaccurate. This should be near the top of the priority list for the competitive and esports side of PUBG Corp, as top esports titles all make the viewing experience paramount.