The official PUBG Esports Roster Rules are believed to be undergoing a significant change for the 2023 season. According to multiple sources, Krafton is considering altering the import rule by changing “the limit of foreign players on a roster from two players to one” in 2023. If confirmed, this will have a profound impact on regions like Asia, APAC and North America.
As PUBG moves into the partner program and PGS era, there appears to be a heavier emphasis on regional performance. If this rule change occurs, that heavier emphasis will now extend to a player’s country of origin too. In essence, the rule change shifts from a “2+2” to “3+1” regarding players from outside each region. In short, a North American team can not have more than one European or OCE player. The potential divide between North American and South American players counting as imports on roster remains unclear at the moment. This lack of knowledge is compounded in Asia and APAC because of the micro-regions created by multiple nationalities with distinct domestic scenes coming together. It is unclear if rosters like Donuts USG and Enter.Force 36 would be allowed to field two Korean players. Additionally, It is also unclear at this time how this affects the European scene, if at all.
It remains unclear at this time how the rule would be applied, however. This very change very well could only be tied to the macro-regions. If Asian teams are allowed to field multiple players from non-domestic micro-regions inside Asia, then it will likely have little effect in on the Asian scene. That would still have a major impact on the Americas scene. However, if the change does extend to micro-regions, then both Asia and the Americas are set to suffer. Not only would Japanese teams suffer, but English-speaking Americas teams fielding a Brazilian player would not be able to field any other non-American/Canadian players.
Over the past few years, more and more OCE players joined the North American region, thus draining the region’s talent. Additionally, the top Japanese teams, including Enter.Force 36, utilized Korean players like Americano to remain at the top of their region. This potential rule change, in tandem with the partner program, wants to bring players back to their home regions to promote domestic talent and stability.
This potential change to the PUBG Roster Rules has a massive effect on both APAC and the Americas. In North America, Wildcard Gaming would need to remove one of Nathan “Ykikamucoww” Lynha or Nico “Nicoos” Galanakis from the roster. In turn, that means that more talent may migrate back to OCE and result in an official PGS partner slot. This also may impact the Japanese scene to a large degree as well. While the potential specifics remain unclear, it is believed that Japanese teams may suffer as well. Notably, Donuts USG, the lone Japanese representative at PGC 2022, would potentially need to let go one of Corn or Americano.
Once again, we would like to stress that this is not an official report. This topic is something that multiple sources told TGH, but none were able to speak with 100 percent confidence, hence the rumor label.
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