Prize Pools at the Top Tier: PUBG $2 Million, PUBG Mobile $3 Million, and More
Krafton announced on the 19th that its PUBG: Battlegrounds and Battlegrounds Mobile have been selected as official titles for the 'eSports World Cup (EWC)'.
The EWC, hosted by the eSports World Cup Federation, is the world's largest eSports tournament and will be held over eight weeks from July 3 to August 25 in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The total prize pool is $60 million (approximately 82.8 billion KRW), the highest amount in the history of eSports tournaments.
The EWC consists of the ‘Game Championship’, which determines the winning teams of individual titles, and the ‘Club Championship’, which aggregates the results of participating teams across titles to crown the best eSports team worldwide.
Among the 21 scheduled titles in the ‘Game Championship’, Krafton is participating as the only Korean game publisher in this EWC.
The Battlegrounds category features a total prize pool of $2 million (approximately 2.8 billion KRW) with 24 teams from around the world competing. Based on the power rankings after the conclusion of the four PGS (PUBG Global Series) tournaments, the top eight teams?Twisted Minds, Cerberus Esports, iArena, Natus Vincere, Petriko Road, Sonics, Virtus.pro, and NewHappy Esports?have secured direct tickets to the EWC. The remaining 16 spots will be contested by 16 teams that advance through regional EWC qualifiers from Korea, China, Europe/Middle East/Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Americas.
The Korean regional qualifiers for Battlegrounds will be held over two rounds on June 29-30 and July 6-7 to narrow down to 16 teams. The top three teams from the finals held from July 12 to 14 will advance to the EWC. All Korean regional qualifier matches will be conducted online.
Reflecting the high expectations of domestic eSports fans for the EWC, Krafton expanded the number of Korean regional qualifier teams to 24, including 13 teams from the professional league '2024 PUBG Weekly Series (PWS)' and 11 teams selected through the amateur tournament ‘2024 PUBG Level Up Series Cup (PLS Cup)’.
The Battlegrounds Mobile category will be held as a standalone tournament linked to the EWC, called the ‘Battlegrounds Mobile World Cup (PMWC)’. The total prize pool is $3 million (approximately 4.1 billion KRW), the largest among the EWC title prize pools.
A total of 24 teams, including those with excellent results from regional professional leagues worldwide and specially invited teams, will compete in the group stage held from July 19 to 21. The top 12 teams from the group stage will advance directly to the main stage.
The bottom 12 teams from the group stage will compete in the survival stage from July 23 to 24 alongside four teams from the ‘Battlegrounds Mobile Super League (PMSL)’. The top four teams from this stage will advance to the main stage. The PMSL is the world's largest professional league covering Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the Americas.
The main stage will take place from July 26 to 28, where 16 teams?the top 12 from the group stage and the top 4 from the survival stage?will fiercely compete. The team with the highest cumulative points over the two days will be crowned the champion.
In Korea, DRX, the winner of the domestic professional tournament ‘PMPS 2024 Season 1’, and Dplus Kia, the winner of the Korea-Japan competition ‘Battlegrounds Mobile Rivals Cup (PMRC) 2024 Phase 1: Korea vs Japan’, have secured their spots in the PMWC.
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