With the PUBG Nation’s Cup a few weeks away we’re going to be looking at what each of the four regions (Americas, Asia, Europe, and APAC) is bringing to the table at PNC. 16 nations have selected their country’s best players to represent them at this tournament, and it’s one of the few opportunities we get to see each nation’s PUBG crop go head-to-head. PNC will not only give us an idea of the esports talent coming out of individual nations, but also a sense of the talent coming out of each region, how they differ, how they’re alike, and which has the best chance of winning big at PNC. Next up, APAC.
Coach Vote.
Looking at the APAC teams it is easy to see the interesting clash of gaming cultures going on in that region between the four nations representing at PNC (Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Australia). Both Thailand and Vietnam utilize coach voting. The teams’ coaches (Chak for Thailand and DjChip for Vietnam) get to choose one of the four slots on their country’s PNC roster. One more slot is chosen by pro player vote, the most common method across the 16 PNC teams. Then the two chosen players along with the coach choose two more players for the remaining spots. This method of communication between coach and player to fill out a nation’s roster is unique to Thailand and Vietnam, and you would think might lead to a degree of favoritism.In this case, two players on Team Thailand, as well as the coach, are all from Daytrade Gaming. We wouldn’t call this favoritism however, as Daytrade just won PCS6: APAC. Daytrade is currently ranked the 5th best team in the world. Their team scored a staggering 310 points at PCS6, 71 points higher than the 2nd place team. Both Nourinz and PuuChiwz from Daytrade are playing for Thailand. Team Vietnam is similarly uniform with all four players coming from either Cerberus Esports or BN United. Both are excellent teams, but interestingly, no PNC members are coming from Vietnam’s top placing PCS6 team Unicorn Phoenix Da Nang. For a refresher, the final placings from PCS6: APAC are below.
New Fish. Old Hand.
This is Indonesia’s first PNC and, in some ways, feels like a small fish going from a big pond to an even bigger one. The Asia Pacific region already had the biggest pool of nations vying for position, and now stepping into PNC, Indonesia is making an enormous leap. Maybe their greenness will come in handy, or it might be glaring. What also makes Indonesia’s team feel a bit like underdogs is they’ve used a method for PNC roster selection, one that is also used by Japan and Chinese Taipei, which is fan voting. Indonesia’s fans got to choose two of the players for team Indonesia, Kidx from Team Extraordinaire and Tedeeyy from Alter Ego.
On the other end of the spectrum, Team Australia was selected in a completely different fashion. Using the same method used by Americas teams, Australia’s roster has two PNC members chosen by the pro player community in Australia. What is unique about Australia is they have two MVPs on their team. Staying in step with the Americas teams, a PCS6 MVP win gets you a slot on their team, but Australian players are sought after. They play around the world, and an Australian won MVP at both PCS6: APAC and PCS6: Americas. Monty, the APAC MVP led his Team Bliss to a 5th place finish at APAC and TGLTN led his team to a 1st place finish at the Americas. The two MVPs have history playing together as well which could give Australia an edge where team cooperation is considered (a key to success at PNC). On the other hand, it could cause some internal dispute as to who their IGL will be. While TGLTN might be the best player in the world right now, Monty was the MVP while playing for Australia while TLGTN won it while playing in the US. Australia’s roster also has one of the few players in all of PNC 2022 who also played at PNC 2019, luke12, who brings a level of seniority and experience which could make him more suitable as IGL. Whatever the case, it will be hard for them to fall short of their PNC 2019 performance where they came 14th. Despite that dismal display, there is a lot of momentum for Australia heading into PNC. They have been putting up some incredible PUBG players in the last few years, plus their current roster consists of four players from different Esports organizations, a configuration that has worked quite well for other teams at PNC (i.e., Canada and Vietnam).
Home court advantage.
PNC 2022 will be held in Bangkok this year and the Thai team is certainly hoping that home-court advantage will boost them to victory. It no doubt helped South Korea, which placed 2nd at PNC 2019. Thai players are some of the best in the world right now and having fans cheering you on in the stands, as well as not having to travel to play, could provide them the edge they need.
Keep up with the teams from the other three regions this week, as they prepare to battle it out at PNC 2022, June 16th to 19th in Thailand for a piece of the $500,000 prize pool.
WHERE TO WATCH / FOLLOW
Check out our PCS6 Americas content channels for VODs and streams:
Be sure to follow PUBG Esports on social media to stay up to date on all the action.