Apparently, dealing with the PlayerUnknown's BATTLEGROUNDS Esports department was a pretty unpleasant experience, according to two former PUBG Esport team owners. One of the earliest games to popularize the now widespread battle royale shooter genre, PUBG has kept the majority of their players invested by continuing to add in new weapons, locations, and features, such as the ability to fly lightweight airplanes in PUBG.
Although it began as a PC-only title, PUBG can now be found on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and even mobile devices. PUBG Mobile recently celebrated its second anniversary, and is featuring a special event this month which will add an amusement park to Erangel, the game's first map ever released. Players have also been enjoying the game's new 8v8 Deathmatch mode, which takes players to one of seven different select locations from the PUBG maps and lets them battle it out old-school style. The game has grown in popularity in the Esports scene since release, although some of PUBG's recent Esports news hasn't been very flattering.
Now, thanks to a recent interview by Esports Insider, players have a little bit of a better idea of what goes on behind the scenes at PUBG Esports, and from delaying promised items to leaving team owners to find out league changes via Twitter, it doesn't sound very good. According to Shawn Pellerin, Co-owner of Spacestation Gaming, communication between his team and the National PUBG League was "non-existent," and that "Alex Penn, who was in charge of NPL, never replied to emails - even after multiple attempts... we were never able to give feedback on anything." Feedback would have been helpful, especially since both Pellerin and the CEO of Ghost Gaming, Matt Dillon, reported that they were promised custom in-game items for their teams, but those never came. "I expected our share of that to be at least $50,000," Dillon said.
Dillon also stated that his team was "promised, or at least pitched, a much more robust offering of in-game items custom for each time. The original time frame for that should have been Phase 1." However, the National PUBG League ended up moving these cosmetic items further and further back, first to Phase 2, and then to the PUBG Global Championship. According to Pellerin, a similar story was told to them, where "We were promised they would build a full organization set including weapon... but never ended up happening." The items were eventually cancelled, and both owners described the support they received from the PUBG Corporation as "minimal" throughout the entire process.
Given the rising popularity of Esports over the past few years, companies like the PUBG Corporation will need to reassess the way they handle dealings with Esports teams in the future, lest they allow their game to become abandoned for one which offers a more positive working relationship. While unforeseeable events always occur in business (just look at how the coronavirus cancelled SXSW) the most important thing that everyone involved can do to help each other out is maintain an open and honest line of communication. Hopefully PlayerUnknown's BATTLEGROUNDS will do a better job of taking care of their Esports teams in the future, and until then both Ghost Gaming and Spacestation Gaming can find other games to play.
Source: Esports Insider