With the Esports World Cup and the PUBG Nations Cup over, the second half of the 2024 PUBG Esports calendar has arrived. With one regional qualifier and two global events until PGC, teams are entering fight-or-flight mode on their seasons. However, as everyone is preparing to look forward, it is time to quickly look back and reflect on what the 2024 PUBG Esports season has produced with the 2024 PUBG Esports Midseason Awards.
Most Surprising Team: EArena
Heading into 2024, EArena was an afterthought on the global scene. They managed to qualify for PGS 2 last year, but their group-stage exit felt normal for typical fresh-faced APAC teams. EArena have seemingly made the leap this year to global contender, however.
They won the PUBG Thai Series to open the year, only to quickly follow it with a sixth-place finish at PGS 3 and a close second-place finish at PGS 4. While their EWC was underwhelming, they currently sit in a solid position to make PGC based on their first-half performance. That boost can partially be attributed to Jacob’s introduction. Since arriving from Made in Thailand at the start of the year, he has been a critical cog in this roster’s offensive attack. Without that addition, EArena would not have won this award.
Most Disappointing Team: NewHappy
NewHappy entered 2024 looking to get back to their international LAN-winning ways. While they closed 2023 with a solid fifth-place finish at PGC, the rest of their international performances were underwhelming. To try and solve that, they brought in one of the most mechanically talented players in the world, Longskr.
While they won PCL Spring, their ninth and twelfth-place finishes at PGS 3 and 4 complicate matters. Any team with MMing & Longskr should be around the top of the lobby based on their carry potential, but it has not clicked yet. Their 20th-place finish at EWC should have alarm bells ringing, however. Despite a strong first day of group play, a seven-point second day left them outside grand finals by six points. While they sit in a strong position to make PGC based on domestic points, they need to solve their issues to get anywhere close to meeting expectations.
Best Roster Move: xmpl joins Twisted Minds
This award belongs to a single move more than a mass reset. Jacob joining EArena has seemingly helped them leap up the APAC hierarchy and TSM’s roster moves have made them the second-best team in the Americas, but xmpl joining Twisted Minds feels like the apparent choice. When a new addition helps a team finally get over the hump, it is hard to pick someone else.
Amid a total roster reset this offseason, NaVi jettisoned the entirety of their PGC-winning roster from 2022. This left xmpl, their star fragger, a free agent roaming the European ranks looking for a new team. Sometimes, the most straightforward fits are the best, however. His arrival into Twisted Minds was hailed as a potentially transformative moment for the team. Despite being considered the best team in the world over the last four-and-a-half years, their global shortcomings remained. In the grand finals of PGS4, that all changed. He led the entire lobby in kills and damage, propelling the team to win PGS 4. A storybook finish for a storybook move.
Best Player: Aixleft, Petrichor Road
It may seem antithetical to give this award to a player without a trophy this year, but it is justified this year. Aixleft has continued to dominate in every event he plays in. The Chinese aimgod of many names has laid claim to the title of best player in China with years of consistent personal and team performances across the domestic and global stage.
This year, across PCL and three global LANs, Aixleft holds three top-six player ratings according to twire.gg. The lone exception among those events is PGS3, where he finished tied for 11th. The only other player to finish with a top-11 player rating in all three global is surprisingly NaVi’s Hakatory. Add a second-place finish at EWC to Aixleft’s 2024 resume and it’s pretty easy to see why he is arguably the best player so far this season.
Best Team: Twisted Minds
This was the most challenging award to decide by a wide margin. It is all a question of what one values when making the decision: regional play, global play, individual performance or even prize money. When considering all of those things, two teams stick out above the rest: Soniqs and Twisted Minds. Either team could be number one and I think no one would believe that it is unreasonable.
They have near identical international results this year, but Soniqs have a prize money advantage based on winning EWC. In domestic play, they are also nearly identical. However, their differences in regional play is what decided it. Twisted Minds winning a regional title supersedes Soniqs winning the EWC Qualifier for Americas despite already being qualified for the event.
Twisted Minds, with a new player, finally claimed the global title they have been chasing for years. They continued their history of strong regional performances across the EMEA circuit with their second PEC win in three tries. More compellingly, despite the introduction of xmpl, Perfect1ks has become a more dominant, active force for this roster. For all of that, they win the title of best team at these 2024 PUBG Esports Midseason Awards.
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