Welcome to the Esports Report; a new monthly article series where I’ll be going over the biggest tournaments, events and leagues from the major esports titles each month. In our first report of the series here are the titles that’ll be covered this month: PUBG, Rainbow 6 Siege and DOTA 2. Followed by a list of competitions that will take place over the course of April.
PUBG: Regional Leagues Wrap on Stage 1, PGS Teams Locked In
In the first stage of the competitive year for PUBG, teams around the world compete for a spot in the first international tournament of the year; the PUBG Global Series 1 that will take place at LAN in Kuala Lumpur. The teams of PUBG are divided into four regions: the Americas, the EMEA, Asia and APAC.
In the Americas region, the tournament was dominated by the Three Kings of North America; Luminosity Gaming, the Soniqs and Shoot to Kill. Winning 8 of the 15 games that were played in the grand finals, the Three Kings each eclipsed 100 points easily with 248 kills combined! Soniqs entered the tournament as the partner team of the Americas, meaning they had a spot in PGS already secured, however it would be Luminosity Gaming who would claim victory in the tournament with a total of 166 points, 36 points higher than the Soniqs who took second place. Shoot to Kill, the only Three Kings team who didn’t get a chicken dinner, finished in third with 117 points. With the Three Kings each securing a spot to PGS, the question going into day 3 who would take the fourth and final spot. It came down to a race between four teams; Third Eye, Elevate, Friendly Fire and Decimate. Ethan for Elevate, Oldless for Third Eye and Roth for Friendly Fire each had significant impacts on the final day, but it is Third Eye who clinches the fourth and final spot for the Americas region going to PGS; Elevate finishes in fifth, the difference being one point. This unfortunately means that there will be no teams representing LATAM at PGS.
In the EMEA region, it was a different story. Here the partner teams, who have a direct invite to PGS, did not reach the top four. Faze Clan, Natus Vincere and Twisted Minds struggled against the lobby all of whom fought hard for the two spots that were up for grabs. After 15 games, Howl Esports, an open qualifier team from Turkey, took first place in the lobby with 122 points after an amazing first 5 matches, finishing in the final four in all of them. The last spot however was a race just like there American counterparts. This came down to the final game as Acend, Exalt and Fut Esports were all within reach. Even though the final game was won by Polish Power, who had no chance of qualifying, their victory prevented Exalt from claiming a spot which left Acend Club as the second-place team and the last EMEA team to qualify for PGS.
The two Asian sub regions, China and Korea, had month long tournaments to decide who would be representing them at PGS. For China the partner teams include Four Angry Men, 17 Gaming and Petrichor Road, heading into the PUBG Champions League. In the first phase of the League, New Happy dominated by claiming over 300 points over three weeks of competition. In the playoffs though, New Happy would fall to second place as Four Angry Men claim victory as the champions of China. On top of the partner teams from China, New Happy and Tianba claim the final two spots at PGS. In Korea, partner team Gen G, finished in fifth place in the PUBG Weekly Series, which opened the door for other teams to qualify. The top three teams from the Weekly Series; Danawa esports, Pentagram and GHIBLI Esports claim the majority of the prize pool along with three spots to PGS.
The final region of PUBG, APAC is divided into five different tournaments to represent different nations in the region. However, the region does not have a partner team that automatically qualifies. Thailand, through its Thailand Series, has earned two spots to PGS, which went to Daytrade Gaming and Purple Mood esport. Daytrade Gaming, a regular Thailand powerhouse advanced with 537 points, while Purple Mood advanced from the lower league. The final four tournaments each had one representative each: CERBERUS Esports (from Vietnam), Exo Clan (from Australia), SunSister (from Japan) and Global Esports Xsset (from Taiwan).
PGS 1 2023 will take place from April 27th to May 7th.
Rainbow 6 Siege: First Wave of Teams Qualify for Blast Copenhagen
On February 19th, Ubisoft and BLAST announced that the first major for the 2023 competitive year will take place in Copenhagen from April 24th to May 7th. Leading up to the event, the ten regions of Rainbow 6 would host a regional closed tournament to determine who will host them in Copenhagen. These tournaments took place last month and the first wave of teams who qualified for Copenhagen.
From North America, M80 and DarkZero Esports qualified to the second phase of the Stage Finals for finishing first and second in the league, while third place Spacestation Gaming makes it into the first phase. From Europe, Virtus.pro and G2 Esports finished at the top and got tickets to phase 2 while MNM Gaming and WYLDE need to have another round of games to decide who qualifies. The Brazilian region also seeded to have three direct invites to Copenhagen this includes Faze Clan and Team Liquid who qualifies to the second phase, while w7m esports qualifies to the first phase. Japan’s SCARZ qualified directly to the second phase while NORTHEPTION made it into the first phase. South Korea will be represented by Dplus in the second phase and SANDBOX Gaming in the first phase. The Oceanian and Middle Eastern regions both only received one direct invite for their league’s winners; they’ll be represented by Team Bliss and Team Falcons respectively. The LATAM league is in its final stages and will have its winner by the end of the weekend, while the Asia League will be decided as the Southeast Asian and the South Asian leagues play for two spots.
The remaining 6 spots for Copenhagen will be decided by the Last Chance Qualifiers in the six higher seeded regions: North America, Europe, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and LATAM. These tournaments will take place over the course of the next two weeks.
DOTA 2: Berlin Major Qualifiers Come to a Close
The DOTA 2 Pro Circuit is ready for its second major that will take place in Berlin from April 26th to May 7th. The six regions of DOTA 2 have two tiers of competition, Division I and II, where only Division I teams have an opportunity to qualify for a major. Eighteen teams have qualified for the Berlin Major from the six different regions: Team Liquid, Tundra Esports, Gaimin Gladiators and OG (from Europe); the Hellraisers, Team Spirt and BetBoom Team (from Eastern Europe); Xtreme Gaming, PSG.LGD, Invictus Gaming and Team Aster (from China); Talon Esports, Execration and Team SMG (from Southeast Asia); TSM and Shopify Rebellion (from North America); finally beastcoast and Evil Geniuses (from South America).
The two bottom teams from each Division I competition will be regulated to Division II, being replaced by the top two teams from Division II. The DOTA 2 Pro Circuit is now in a brief recess until the Berlin Major that will take place at the end of April and the 19th Season of the Dreamleague competition that will take place from April 9th to April 23rd.
Competitions taking Place in April
- PUBG: PGS Phase I (April 27th to May 7th)
- Overwatch 2: the Pro-Am Tourney Playoffs (April 8th to 9th)
- Valorant: VCT EMEA (March 27th to May 28th), Americas (April 1st to May 28th), Pacific (March 25th to May 28th)
- DOTA 2: Dreamleague S19 (April 9th to 23rd) and Berlin Major 2023 (April 26th to May 7th)
- Rocket League: RLCS San Diego Major (April 6th to 9th)
- Rainbow 6: Last Chance Qualifers (April 14th to 16th) and BLAST Copenhagen Major (April 24th to May 7th)
- CSGO: IEM Rio Major (April 17th to 23rd) and the BLAST RMRs (April 6th to 15th)
- Apex Legends: ALGS Split 2 (ongoing)
- League of Legends: League Play (ongoing)
Nerdcrash! 