Competitive PUBG: ESL Masters Phase 1 — Americas
ESL ended last Sunday with the victory of eUnited with a short margin, and the 3rd regional title in a row for the former OATH squad. The tournament has been the opportunity to establish the first ranking among the American competitive scene and has granted the first points leading to PGC 2022.
In this article, we’ll talk a bit about every team, and their performances both during the group stage and finals highlighting their strengths and weaknesses and understanding what are the perspectives for PCS 6.
Before we start, I’d mention I’ll focus on the top 10 teams. There has been a talk on social media about LATAM teams deserving 8 slots (instead of 6), but both 2021 and ESL results have proven 6 is more than enough to maintain competitive integrity in the region. Would finals be relevant if the level is lower than the NA group stage? The obvious answer is no.
Finally, this article is biased given my experience in NA, my existing and past relationship with some teams/players, and I’m only sharing one perspective. Also, I didn’t keep track of all 42 games for every team, and I apologize in advance for possible mistakes.
Top 10: Rumblers
Rumblers are exactly where they deserve to be. After a group stage where they qualified with a five points lead over 11th, they end up as the 9th NA team in the grand finals with a slightly better ppg (points per game), but far to be enough to compete for a higher position.
If you look closely at their past performances, not only 2021 tournaments, but also scrims before ESL, you’ll find a very inconsistent team with occasional highs, but also a lot of lows.
Their macro is at best questionable, as they seem to rely mostly on other teams’ mistakes to find their entry point rather than bringing in a strong identity. After giving up Chumacera without even a try, they’ve shown late timings on both maps, leading to very difficult spots (which weren’t even a fight for the most part).
Also, their lack of experience with Miramar led to some early fights they couldn’t manage, based on lack of awareness in my opinion.
Despite a better dynamic in week 2, their early losses certainly hit their mental and confidence during the 30 matches.
Even if we certainly could discuss their individual performances, they suffer from bigger issues they’ll need to fix soon enough if they want to be a contender. Sticking to a much easier style might be the first good step for the future.
Top 9: BBG
BBG is, to me, a negative surprise given the expectations, and the supposed addition of individual talents.
After a good group stage, and being in the lead after 10 matches in the grand finals, they totally collapsed. I’ll try to stay concise about BBG as there would be a lot to say.
I think it’s a very unbalanced team. I don’t really know Bale, but I’ve had the opportunity to get familiar with the other three. Badger takes a lot of space, he’s very vocal and very assertive, and unless you get someone else to balance his weight, you’ll end up with “followers” instead of active players. It can be really beneficial in straightforward games (either favorable shifts, or “easy” lines), but it’s definitely hurtful as you lack initiative and proactivity when you’re chasing the circle,
BBG is a hyperactive team. It might seem totally absurd considering what I just said but Badger is a creative player who will see opportunities in every situation, but he definitely has issues considering the big picture sometimes. While some calls are excellent, other ones are definitely excessive and lead to “chaotic” fights where they often end up trading rather than exploiting.
This kind of high variance play style can get you great performances, but can also cost you a lot.
For the future, I hope Gats won’t get crushed by the existing dynamic, will stand his ground, and bring some balance. A more controlled overall pacing with their ability to have clear calls and proper executions might stabilize the team for the best.
Top 8: YAHO
YAHO is, to me, the typical “standard” team. They’ll do really well in their easy games, and be totally clueless in their bad games.
They definitely have good individuals, but their overall understanding of the game along with their mentality/work ethic is too poor to pretend to be more than an “average” team.
I’ve been working with Poon, Shin, and sparkingg last year. I wouldn’t describe any of them as “bad”, but they aren’t really the kind to push boundaries and grow over time.
For the future, I don’t expect any major changes (outside of H1ruzen who got kicked from the team) in terms of playstyle or performance.
PS: The information I got since I started working on this article totally confirms my opinion, and what to expect for the future.
Top 7: Gascans
I’ve been helping GAS here and there to prepare for ESL, and I will necessarily be a bit biased.
They share my ideas and principles for the most part: lines, the importance of information (gather + manipulate), RIDPE, etc… And I can confidently say they’re in the right direction. Nonetheless, they still have a lot of work ahead of them, and this is the feedback I gave them:
- Refine their lines: there are some specific patterns where their lines don’t work, and cost them important points,
- Execution: there are many spots where they need to be faster (with the same discipline), it’ll be better with time and experience, but it’s an important matter they need to work actively on — through VODs,
- Be more active in early phases: they missed some key opportunities being immobile/passive in situations where they had more room than they thought,
On top of those few points, Ykikamucow has been slowly adapting to Americas (Ping, Meta, style), and will be a top player again any time soon. It’ll be important for the future that Cow can be the leader he used to be for FURY and provide his full value.
I could talk a lot more about GAS, but it should be enough to guide your observing in the future, and hopefully see these changes happen.
Top 6: Dodge
First of all, I’d like to praise Ethan’s performance. In a region where new talents have trouble emerging, he managed to maintain great numbers across a BO30 while still being fairly young. That’s really promising for the future.
However, that great performance comes with a major drawback: even if I honestly don’t have a single idea of Dodge team’s structure, their performance is indeed related to Ethan’s, and assuming he gets an opportunity to join another “mid-team” or simply have a more “normal” performance in PCS 6, the team could fall down really quickly.
That said, and even if Mirage is certainly still adapting to playing in NA and was putting good numbers in OCE, I’d be really surprised if they manage to be a contender for a PGC spot.
PS: Mirage has been announced as the new 4th for Team Bliss (OCE), and Hikerman should replace him. With Hikerman being an average player for a while now, I don’t see Dodge getting better over time.
Top 5: Synergy Esports
Let’s be honest, I have absolutely no knowledge of the LATAM scene.
However, the team seems to reunite a bunch of experienced players who have been consistently among the best in their region.
Based on what I’ve seen during the finals, I would easily describe them as a better YAHO:
- A strong identity as a “position” team: strong timings, macro knowledge,
- Consistent: very few early casualties, strong ability to maintain resources (info, manpower, vehicles),
- Experience: good understanding of their spots, balance control/fights,
I’m not sure if they can truly get a lot better, but they shouldn’t get worse as well. Except if TROG gets back to their 2021 dynamic where they have shown decent fragging abilities, and even if it’s early, I don’t see who could prevent them to get LATAM PGC spot.
Top 4: BBB, SQ, STK, eU
I’m regrouping the top 4 as, even if I didn’t expect BBB to be that consistent, they are the 4 teams who have had a stable roster for a while now, and PUBG is a game where experience prevails, results go along stability.
BBB:
It’d be hard to talk about BBB without talking first about Roth’s performance. Even if it’s nothing new Roth is a world-class player, it has been a while since his last major individual performance. He’s not only a very traditional IGL, but also a strong fragger, which is what an IGL should be nowadays but is far to be common.
Overall, it has been really refreshing to see BBB being confident in their fights. I’ve seen them solving out a lot of fights in a very proactive way, not to mention how they got out of several tricky spots. They have been a very assertive team, showing strong decision-making (picking their spots), and a team with great team play.
This performance is the continuation of their PCS 5 performance after the addition of Oldless, who certainly benefit a lot from a really stable experienced team to display his skills, while he was kinda inconsistent before.
Worth mentioning as well, BBB changed their spot on Erangel which fits fairly well their early timings on a map where positions are really valuable. Even if it didn’t pay off in ESL (78 points on Erangel/141 on Miramar), I can’t wait to see them refine their plans and be more prepared, and complete, for PCS 6.
Finally, I think you can expect BBB to be fully competing with the other 3 by the end of the year if they keep growing as a team.
STK, SQ, eU:
I won’t discuss the top 3 as they’re all achieved, experienced teams, and ending within 20 points of each other is the sign they’re equally as good, and it comes down to details to determine the exact ranking.
I just wanted to have a word regarding the addition of Fludd for eUnited. I’m not sure what role was fitting Bale for them in 2021 (and before), but I’ve always had the idea that no matter your role, you have to find a way to be impactful. It can be through kills, but it can also come to communication, or your specific ability to provide value in a given area (pre-planning, pacing, identifying sends, map knowledge, etc..). Following the same idea, there should be no excuse to have low kills (and participation: kills and assists), even if you’re a “support player”. To me, that’s the main difference between someone like Fludd and a lot of other (top) players, he just brings his own vibe: he’s calm, he’s relevant, he has his focus in the right place, he’s super consistent, he’s always in a good position, he values his life, he’s always positive, and yet, Fludd hates risks a lot, he’s often in the back anticipating issues and filling gaps.
With more time to get used to ping, and refine their synergies, along with the new perspectives he could bring in terms of play style to the team, eU can certainly settle themselves as the uncontested best Americas team this year.
Conclusion:
I’ve tried to stay fair in my comments and keep aside my existing relationship with some players/teams. We might disagree on some points, and I’d happily share longer with anyone who wants to discuss these opinions. Once again, I’m super open to being wrong as I’m “judging” teams and there is room for several perspectives, and I’m only one of these. Also, if you’re mentioned in this article and want to reach me out for a more complete opinion, feel free.
I’ll try to get back to technical articles hopefully next week as it’s certainly what most of you are following me for, but I thought ESL, which is the first western major event in 2022 was a great opportunity to initiate talks about past performances and perspectives for Americas’ teams.
Znooper
