Last weekend, Gen.G Global Academy held a small event called “PUBG Mini Camp”. It was a chance for the players to meet and learn from some of the best PUBG players in the world. 

There were more than 300 players that applied whose age varied from 8 years old to more than 40 years old. 32 lucky applicants were selected as the students for the program. The Gen.G PUBG team players and coaching staff joined the students and worked with them, teaching and giving feedback on the game.

Joseph Baek, Gen.G Global Academy executive director talked about how the whole event came together. 

“We had two primary motivating factors for running the PUBG Mini Camp. First, we have many fans who have reached out to us, wanting to engage with our professional team but there was no real outlet to do so. The second was that there are many serious PUBG players who want to sincerely learn how to be better at the game, but there aren't any programs that leverage real expertise for students to learn.”

“So, as an org that's all about creating more opportunities for those passionate about gaming and esports, the PUBG Mini Camp was planned in a way to merge fan engagement with objective-centered programming. We wanted the students to not only meet their heroes but also learn from them in a real and tangible way.”

The camp started with a tour of Gen.G facilities. Seats and teams were assigned to each student. After some ice-breaking, the students sat to set up their equipment and get used to the environment.

After everything was set up, the students were broke into two groups for a lecture from Gen.G PUBG team head coach, Bae “WatchinU” Seung-hu, and former player and Gen.G Elite Esports Academy coach Park “SeaYureka” Kyu-tae. 

WatchinU talked about the mentality of pro players, the way how players should stay calm in any situation, and SeaYureka talked about the importance of proper briefing. The students listened closely and asked several questions to help improve their game.

The next session was the workshop with Gen.G pro players. The “heroes” joined the workshop — Na "Inonix" Hee-joo, Go "Esther" Jeong-wan, and Kim "Chelator" Min-ki. Inonix, Esther, and Chelator joined WatchinU and SeaYureka to coach the students. The workshop consisted of scrims and receiving feedback from the students’ heroes.

“There wasn’t anything like this back when I was first trying to become a pro player,” said Inonix. “I’m glad that I’m able to be a part of such a great program. I hope these students learn and take home as much as they can through this camp.”

Over two days, the PUBG Camp went on packed full of scrims, feedback, and lectures, and the participants went home with smiles on their faces, with great satisfaction. Joseph Baek was also very happy with the results.

“Overall, we were ecstatic about the results. We honestly did not expect the overwhelming interest in the program, much less the utmost passion of the participants. We handed out surveys to all the participants by the end of the camp, and we were very surprised to see overwhelmingly positive feedback and gratitude for the experience.”

“What's more, I personally talked to a few students about how they felt about the program, and the most interesting thing I heard is that the event was impactful in more ways than simply meeting the players. One student in particular said he felt more hope that he could actually use his love for gaming for opportunities in the future, and he was thankful that the event created a space that could nurture his passion for something much more meaningful.”