Competitive PUBG: Information
First, I’d like to say thank you for all the positive feedback I’ve received following my last post. I’ve been myself in a position where I was looking for resources about competitive PUBG when I started coaching, and there was absolutely nothing, so I’m glad to finally be able to give back to the community.
My goal with this series is to provide tools and perspectives for anyone trying to step up. Once again, there isn’t a single truth about this game, and I’m going through my own principles. If you disagree, if you think the game should be played differently, if you see top teams doing well despite following none of these, it’s normal. PUBG is a very complex game, with only one truth: how successful you’re.
Today, we’ll be talking about information. It’s a very straightforward topic I need to get through before the next article. The reason I’ve decided to talk about it is that I’ve seen a LOT of players not putting enough work toward this, and suffering from it.
Information: Facts provided or learned about something or someone.
Passive
Passive information is the easiest to work toward and to understand. I define as passive information, all kind of information you can learn without even playing the game.
Loot spots maps
Before every official match you may play, you should start gathering information about the teams you’re going to play against, and especially their loot spots.
While some (top) teams may play the same spots “no matter what”, some lower teams might adjust their spot or have several options. Being prepared for what could be going on is a great way to build comfort and confidence going into matches.
For example, that’s what the map looks like so far for ESL Americas grand finals. I’ve gathered this information through Twire 2D replays from qualifiers, from my knowledge, and from the loot spot channels on discord.
While it may sound super basic to do so, you should basically learn your maps before any set, and use it as support in-game:
- Track teams when you jump out of the plane — Is there something unusual? Is there an extra team likely to interfere with your plans/lines?
- Understand what is going on in-game — “X and Y are fighting, it must be around Z. It means there should be more space on that side.”
2D Knowledge
It goes along with the previous point, as well as the principle of the line we’ve discussed in the previous article.
What are every team's main defaults? What does their play style look like?
No matter if you’re playing against newcomers or a top-tier team, everyone is predictable and tends to reproduce the same behaviors over and over.
Knowing a given team really likes to split might help you to call a crash/pressure, for example, even if you have never played against them before.
The best example I may have was KPI at PGC. Even if FURY had never played against them before, they knew they were a very “sending” team, and we were super comfortable sharing Los Leones with them as they’d never interfere with our plans, and help us to gather info.
Kill feed
One more kind of information you don’t have to work for. It’s, of course, related to the same itself, but kill feed is basically free info available to everyone.
Learning as a team to keep track of some specific teams (teams you’re likely to meet in your games, for example) might, once again, simplify your decision-making and help you to make the best decision more often.
While it may seem obvious to properly prepare your qualifiers to some of you, if I take the time to mention every single way to get into a best-of X with an advantage is because I’ve seen way too many players thinking the competition starts with the first match, while it has often started days ago, and I’ve heard too many times words such as “unfortunate” or “unlucky” while something was totally predictable.
Active
Active information is, to me, not only the natural counterpart to passive information but also a constant activity in-game to gather info in order to make the right decision.
The one thing I used to tell the players: “Play one game at a time”.
In other words, no matter how much you’ve prepared your set, take time to validate every point through visual and audio information. That doesn’t mean all the work you’ve done beforehand is useless, it only means there is a discipline to have in-game to make sure you truly get benefits from your work.
I won’t go all over again the principle of the line, but based on this idea, your game plan should be more or less clear given your position and the current circle such as you know where your resources should be, what information you’re looking for, and which position you can get them from.
However, I obviously don’t expect you to run around as if there was no other team in the lobby, and that’s why there are a bunch of tools to get to these info spots safely.
Say what you do, do what you say: you’re four individuals, and the only thing holding you together is communication. Be vocal on a consistent basis about your actions (anchoring, holding, pushing, nading, etc…),
Anchoring/bounding/leapfrogging: get constantly someone to hold for you, or hold actively for someone. Even when you assume a position to be free, having someone actively supporting you is the only thing keeping you alive if something goes wrong,
Precise and objective info:
Your marks/waypoints have a specific color, replace “my” by “color”,
There are different kinds of vehicles and different colors for each one,
Perspectives can change the meaning of “closest tree”,
Building have names,
Players have different clothes,
And so on, being efficient comes through accurate communication, and precise information,
Confirmation: if you need something important to be acknowledged, you can easily add an “Ok?” or “Heard?” to your comm,
Questions: Double down on key info and/or make people repeat. “What did you just say?” “Can I have a clear picture?”,
Gas/Util awareness: Make sure you have all the resources you need across your team if something comes us “Check your gas” “Do you all have smokes?”,
And the list could continue for small details which could have an immense impact on the quality of your games.
I’ve seen so many teams burning their mind discussing some spots/fights, while the only useful takeaway is: We didn’t have info.
In the first match of G-Loot Qualifier yesterday, Sprout was so inactive in their initial position (south), they didn’t even notice they had a freeway in toward a good spot and ended up dying trying to get a low-value position.
In the 5th match, EIQ decides their best option on C3’s pop is to blind send as 4 men, while they had two excellent options in front of them: an isolated 4v2(/3) and a free compound which both offer decent lines for 2 common endings.
I have, of course, nothing against EIQ or Sprout. These are 2 quick examples of how being inactive/blind can easily change your “easy” games into 0 point ones. With better proactivity (along with the tools mentioned above), both teams could have ended up in a better spot.
To go further, unless you have a “fortress” compound with a good run-out, you should always be looking to establish contact with the surrounding teams. To stay factual, try to answer the question, “Do we have enough information? If no, can we do more?”. You’ll often end up realizing you can play a ridge next to your compound instead, or you can push an extra 30 meters to gain a lot more visual info.
Conclusion
To wrap it up, I’d like to apologize as Information is a very wide topic, and I definitely didn’t cover it all in this article. Hopefully, the core was good enough such as you start thinking actively in your next games about what else could be done to gather extra info. Basically, every time you aren’t being held or shot at, and you aren’t under (immediate) pressure, you should be going through this reasoning.
Also, if you think you’re doing enough, and/or you don’t see what else you could be doing, feel free to send me a VOD of any scrim/tournament you have (along with your comm). I promise to send you detailed feedback.
Hit me up through mail (gonymaxime@gmail.com), Twitter, or Discord (Znooper#8033) if necessary, I’m always happy to help.
Maxime
