KRAFTON, Inc., the creator of PUBG BATTLEGROUNDS, announced the final results of the PUBG GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIP 2023 (PGC 2023), an in-person PUBG Esports tournament broadcast live from Bangkok, Thailand from 18 November to 3 December. Korean roster Danawa e-sports, consisting of Giyeol “seoul” Cho, Heejoo “Inonix” Na, Jungyoung “Loki” Park, and Jehyeon “Salute” Woo, earned the title of PGC 2023 Champions, taking home USD $600,000 and an additional share from Pick’em challenge crowdfunding revenue.
17Gaming finished the tournament in a close second position, followed by EMEA’s Twisted Minds. FaZe Clan, another EMEA team that qualified to the Grand Finals, finished the tournament sixth on the leaderboard.
Grand Finals Recap
The PGC 2023 Grand Finals took place in BCC Hall within Central Ladprao, a shopping complex located in Bangkok, from 1 – 3 December, with a live audience in attendance. The teams played 18 matches spread over 3 days of the Grand Finals and Danawa e-sports came out on top with 137 points.
Danawa e-sports had a stellar second day of the Grand Finals where they managed to dominate the lobby and jump from 11th place to the top of the leaderboard. To get ahead of the competition, the roster played like an absolute powerhouse – exploiting every opportunity that the match flow and their opponents’ actions presented them.
From that point on, it was a three-horse-race all the way till the final match of the final day. Danawa e-sports was holding onto first place, with 17Gaming and Twisted Minds very much in striking distance.
During Phase 4 of the last match, 17Gaming got eliminated while conducting a very risky rotation, which left only Twisted Minds able to challenge Danawa e-sports’ supremacy. In a very dramatic turn of events, Twisted Minds rotated on top of Danawa e-sports’ position. As soon as Salute realised that the only team potentially standing between them and the championship title was only 50 meters away, he rushed over, secured two knocks on Twisted Minds and all but assured Danawa e-sports’ victory.
17Gaming finished with 133 points, only 4 points below Danawa e-sports, with Twisted Minds trailing a further 8 points behind.
On top of the base prize pool, teams will take home an additional share of reward from the Pick’em Challenge. Thanks to the revenue generated by event exclusive in-game items from the PGC 2023 Pick’em Challenge, 25% of net sales will go towards the total prize pool.
MVP went to Danawa e-sports’ seoul who made a total of 25 kills and 14 assists in the Grand Finals alone. He was awarded an additional prize of USD $10,000.
On the last day of the Grand Finals, Krafton announced its plans to shape the PUBG Esports tournaments more around PUBG Global Series (PGS) in 2024 to provide more opportunities for fans to enjoy world-wide tournaments. Global Partner Team Program, which provides exclusive benefits such as a guaranteed spot in PGS and share of the team’s in-game item revenue, will also be expanded from the current 8 spots to 10.
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