Krafton and PUBG Corp, the publishers behind the famed battle royale PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, are planning on hosting the 2021 PUBG Global Championship entirely on LAN according to sources familiar to The Game Haus. This would mean teams from every region including China, Taiwan and Japan would be playing from Korea in addition to the other teams outside the region.
PGI.S 2021 LAN Stage (Courtesy of PUBG Esports)
This would be a change from the 2021 PUBG Global Invitational.S where the Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese teams played from a separate facility in China instead of in the venue in Korea. The reasoning for this plan is unclear but it would be a return to normalcy from the pre-COVID-19 protocols. There is no clear evidence that ties the plans to the recent issues with PUBG in China. Teams received this information at different points across the cycle instead of all at once.
Additionally, sources noted that the Japanese teams in contention for PGC were given a recommendation to be vaccinated. These teams were supposedly given the recommendation ahead of PCS5 which began on September 16. This likely means the plan for all the teams to be on LAN together was in the works for a significant amount of time.
This news is significant in terms of esports’ recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. With League of Legends hosting worlds on LAN, CS:GO is back on LAN with the major and IEM Cologne and what OWL has done LANs are coming back. From the way things are progressing, audiences seem like they will finally be back in the seats for LANs as some point in 2022.
Meanwhile, the status of the talent team is currently unknown. Sources gave no indication on if the talent would be present on site or remotely. Given that the upcoming CS:GO major will have an in-person broadcast staff, it is not out of the question. This information has not been confirmed by PUBG Corp. if it is or if more information arises this article will receive updates.
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