Competitive PUBG: Los Leones
I’ve been thinking for a long time about Miramar, and I came to the conclusion Chumacera and Los Leones are the two best spots on this map.
PurdyKurty shared his opinion in his last video, and barely rated Chuma, while not mentioning Los Leones at all. However, I strongly believe there are so many reasons to play from there, and I’ll go through them in this article.
I’ll mostly cover lines from Los Leones in this article, due to my previous experiences. If you’re more interested in Chuma, both spots share lines in a “mirrored” way.
Finally, even if you don’t play any of these, you’ll still find useful resources in this article regarding lines, and important positions you should be aiming for.
South patterns
A picture can be worth a thousand words, and that’s why I’ve decided to start with sharing south lines. As you can see, there is an incredible amount of strong positions/compounds you have first access to, and the second prio at worst (SE patterns mostly).
With only a few teams being able to play south loot spots (Chuma, 2 teams Los Leones) and a few alt droppers who usually don’t interfere with your lines as they tend to prioritize coast rotations, you should be able to get access to good positions really easily, especially as Los Leones is a high ground itself in every direction.
For any southwest circle, you’re usually the first team after Chuma, and can easily pressure them to condense and give up Chuma south hill, which is a key position (major high ground, a lot of info).
To keep it short, all of these lines feel natural, and playing from Los Leones is easily doable for any “non-south” team. TL does it a lot on C2/C3, for example.
East patterns
East circles are a bit more complex, as you compete with several teams from your lines.
Through north and Minas, you’ll usually have to deal with Pecado and Power Grid. Through the east, you’ll have to deal with the 2nd Los Leones team, and a potential Puerto team. Impala and Minas having first prio, they shouldn’t be an issue.
Also, as you may see, the two main axes are totally disconnected, and you’ll eventually have to commit to the direction you picked in the first place.
For any ending below the horizontal black line: both options are super easy. The main potential issue is the absence of a horizontal line from one side to the other (of the road), which means you’re very likely playing for a send (or a crash) with very little option for intermediate steps, which can get very tricky.
For endings above the horizontal line, you have 2 very valuable entry points. From the west, through minas high ground. It’s, of course, a highly contested position, but very doable as you usually backfield the Minas team and/or get an opportunity to fight/3p for the position (against red circle especially).
From the east, the major obstacle is to get far north (through the orange circle), which can be very difficult according to the first/second circle. However, it’s a lot better than trying to crash/pressure the Junkyard team who usually has a lot of information/control, and absolutely no pressure.
North East patterns
An area where every shift can be merciless, but an overall really easy to maneuver area. The Minas and the Junkyard teams tend to have first prio toward smiley, up&down, church, which makes it really easy either to play behind them if you’re familiar with their defaults. Coming from the east also allows you to gap them both through Tierra if it shifts north and to catch up on timing with a very low-risk/high-reward rotation.
From the west, and depending on your lobby, as well as the sequence of shifts, the line through Water Treatment hill is also viable, in a very likely king of the hill scenario.
In both cases, if it shifts between Cruz/Torre/Water Treatment, you should be really keen to embrace a kill game mindset as contrary to popular belief, I don’t think you can really use the terrain to make it for the lack of a strong position. I’ve seen so much time people slowly losing to attrition trying to survive instead of pulling the trigger while they still had resources (vehicles/gears/grenades).
North patterns
I can only recommend looking at New Happy lines for this part of the map as these lines are, for the most part, a copy of what they’re doing.
Water Treatment hill is still a priority, given the amount of info (and opportunities) you can get from there. For any ending north of San Martin, that’s the option I tend to prefer. You can also work through planes, but the only viable line out of planes is really hard to negotiate properly.
For the shifts toward La Cobreria, New Happy prefers west rotations (red lines/orange circles), and their 2D replays are the best thing to look at if you’re looking for resources.
Of course, as they’re the furthest ending from Los Leones, I still don’t mind kill games (which can end up as amazing games in good circumstances), but I wouldn’t try avoiding the natural fights you have to deal with.
I wouldn’t talk too much about endings northwest of El Pozo for similar reasons. So far from your loot spots, it’s mostly about opportunities and not being afraid of strong choices.
Central patterns
Really straightforward: you have good access to most high grounds, which should give you all the information you need to make decisions.
Power Grid, is, to me, the exact opposite of Pecado, and certainly the area I’ve had the most struggles with. If you’re getting familiar with my mindset, you should easily understand why. Coming from the south or east, you’ll have a lot of struggles getting access to the Power Grid plateau.
Teams who have first access to high ground positions usually know how strong is their position, and how to get the maximum out of it, which makes it almost impossible to break through against good teams.
The right option is very dependent on your lobby, and the sequences of shifts. I’ve highlighted what should be your main options but there could be other possibilities in your games.
Conclusion
Following what we’ve discussed for every major pattern, I firmly believe Los Leones to be a major loot spot when it comes to Miramar. With good access to most high grounds, it’s a position it’s super easy to move from and isn’t dependent on the surroundings teams. The potential second Los Leones team is often negligible as the only pattern they could be an obstacle for (southeast) offers enough good positions for both teams.
There might be adjustments to do according to your exact lobby, but given the number of good options, you should never face major struggles across your games.
Maxime
