With $3.5M prize pool, PGI.S 2021, the biggest PUBG event in history, has begun

Feb 8, 2021

Last Friday, Feb. 5, the PUBG Global Invitational.S (PGI.S) commenced its eight-week-long journey. Hosted by KRAFTON Inc., the PGI.S stands to be the biggest PUBG esports even in history, as teams worldwide battle for $3.5 million total prize pool.

The letter “S” has many meanings, KRAFTON writes in their press release. First and foremost, it stands for “survival”, the core of the battle royale genre. It also stands for "safety", the biggest prize pool ($), the longest "series", and to find the most "supreme" team.

A total of 32 teams participate from around the world. Popular teams such as Four Angry Men, Team Liquid, Faze Clan, Gen.G, DWG KIA, Shoot To Kill, Soniqs, and more fight to the death for the chicken dinner. The tournament has an online/offline hybrid format, and all teams that can't participate online have been flown to the studio in Incheon, South Korea.

This eight-week series has a unique format. First, it started with the “Rank Decision” matches that were held from Feb. 5-7. The top 16 teams of the Rank Decision matches will then participate in the “Weekly Survival” matches. When a team wins the chicken dinner in a Weekly Survival match, they move on to the “Weekly Finals” and the team does not play in the remaining Weekly Survival. The next highest-ranked team from the Rank Decision takes their place. The prize pool for each Weekly Survival match starts at $10,000 and decreases as the tournament progresses.

The teams’ ranks from the Rank Decision matches are as follows.

In the Weekly Final matches, the 16 teams that won a game during the week, clash for a share of the prize pool. The top 4 teams in each final will share the prize pool based on their accumulated points. The team with the highest share of the prize pool at the end of the tournament will be crowned as PGI.S champions. Each week, the prize pool gets bigger — it begins with 50,000 USD in the first week and goes up to $1,000,000 in week 6. The teams that did not qualify for the finals will play an individual series of placement matches to determine their rank in the following week’s waiting list. 30% of the revenue from the in-game exclusive PGI.S items will also be included in the prize pool, divided according to the final rank in the series.

The general rule for points remains the same:

1st place — 10 points
2nd place — 6 points
3rd place — 5 points
4th place — 4 points
5th place — 3 points
6th place — 2 points
7-8th place — 1 point

Each kill also awards 1 point. From 9th to 16th place, no placement points are given. For tiebreakers, the teams with more kills have the advantage.

In the middle of the tournament, there’s another event called the “Survival Tournament” which is a newly announced, specialty tournament. It’ll be held during March 5-7, which is the break period between the first and second half of the Weekly Series. The tournament intends to offer a new entertainment experience to the audience.