An Introduction to PUBG

Right up there with the computer and video game classics like CounterStrike and DOTA, PUBG has cemented itself in the online gaming industry. According to Krafton, the game has over 3.2 million concurrent users on PC and a whopping 70+ million accumulated downloads all over the world! It has also bagged several awards across categories focused on popularity, net worth, and gameplay.

The game has grown so big, in fact, that it’s been available across multiple platforms such as Steam, Kakao Games, XBOX ONE, PS4, and on mobile devices. On top of that, it has also gone beyond a game simply for enthusiasts to play from home on a small scale! The game has penetrated the world of esports and there are now national and international tournaments set up solely for it.

What is PUBG?

Formerly known by its long name of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, it has since been renamed to PUBG: Battlegrounds, or simply PUBG. It’s classified as a battle royale game, which is a type of game that combines elements of a survival game and last man standing game. We’ll get to the details of gameplay in the section below, but for now you might be wondering where the game even came from!

Well, like most battle royale type games, the inspiration for it comes from the 2000 controversial Japanese film of the same name (think the Hunger Games novel and movie franchise, but less fantasy and more real-life). From there, the “PlayerUnknown” bit of the name comes from the man who built on the game even further using modifications: Brendan Greene, a video game developer also known as, of course, PlayerUnknown. Eventually, it became a standalone game of its own!

There may be some limitations in availability to play in certain countries and regions, but its popularity has birthed creative solutions. One such example is Battleground Mobile India, which was created by Krafton (the company that created PUBG) for since the original was not made available to play in the region; now, it’s one of the most popular esports games in India!

Now, let’s take a closer look into the game’s objectives, interface, and how it’s played!

Basics of PUBG Gameplay

As is typical with battle royale games, players are going up against each other in the gaming arena and the central objective of the game for each player is to be the last remaining survivor by eliminating everyone else. In PUBG, each round begins with 100 players who must first parachute from a plane flying overhead onto their chosen area on one of eight maps. This alone requires strategy – when and where is the best time to jump?

At the end of the match (which usually lasts around half an hour), all players will receive an amount of in-game cash proportional to how well (or not well) they performed. They can then use this cash to purchase customized skins for their character and weapons, and may even come in handy during special events in the future.

Items and Weapons

All players also begin on equal footing; that is, outside of customized clothing, you all begin with no weapons or no special items. This forces players to further explore the map in order to find and collect items that will help them not just in eliminating others but also defending themselves. This includes an array of weapons like guns (rifles, shotguns, pistols, light machine guns), throwables (grenades, molotov cocktails, C4), and others (crossbow, bows and arrows, machete, crowbar) as well as ammunition and shields.

To defend oneself or help with survival, there’s also equipment like backpacks, belts, and helmets, energy drinks, medical kits, and armor, each of which will provide a specific level of protection or boost to the items you already have. Most vehicles encountered in the arena are driveable, and are absolutely essential in two aspects: protection (staying inside a vehicle gives you more cover and damages will hit the vehicle before you – unless targeted by a headshot); and movement (as you may need to move to different areas on the map quickly and sometimes, running just isn’t going to cut it). 

Maps and Safe Zones

Encountering other players will give you a chance to take the other out of the game using the weapons you’ve collected (and if you haven’t got a weapon yet, do whatever you can to at least run away and escape!). You might be wondering if it’s possible not to encounter another player at all during a PUBG match, or to use hiding as a strategy and coming out into the open only when there are much fewer players left. The answer to that is, well, no.

At the beginning of the match, the entire map is a playable area and ‘safe zone’. Every so often, however, the boundary of the playable area (a blue line) will visibly shrink; anyone remaining outside of this safe zone border will get serious damage inflicted to their character’s health. The smaller safe zones thus force more encounters among players! Sometimes, a plane will also fly mark a specific area of the map, and drop a bomb at random to damage players within that area; they are given a few minutes’ warning before the bomb is dropped but this sudden forced movement outside of the detonation area also leads to increased interactions. 

The last game trick to get players to run into each other is in the form of a loot package. A plane will drop the package containing more rare items somewhere on the map; the red smoke that emits from the package alerts nearby players and those who want a shot at a rare item will flock to it, leading to conflicts and increased eliminations amongst players.

Game Modes

Up until this point, it certainly seems like PUBG is a game primarily for individual players. That is true, to an extent, but there are actually other game modes available that allow players to team up! These are the classic modes:

• Solo: the normal gameplay we’ve been talking about: rely on only yourself and be the last player standing. A sub-mode of this is Solo (First Person Perspective) where your view of the surroundings is first person instead of the default third person.
• Duos: the goal and gameplay are much the same, except that now you’re working with a partner that you’re paired with at random. Duos also has the sub-mode Duo (First Person Perspective).
• Squads: you and your friends can play together on a team of 2, 3, or 4 – or you can test your skills by playing solo against the other teams in this mode. Your goal is still to be the last team to survive but take note: even if your team only has 2 players, you’ll still be up against teams of 3 and 4! This also has the Squads (First Person Perspective sub-mode.
• Training: this is the best mode for you to get accustomed to the game, as everything plays out on a much smaller scale. That is, the map is only 2km x 2km, and only a maximum of 20 players are active. This allows you to practice certain skills like when and where to drop, getting used to the weapons and controls, and driving the vehicles, before jumping into the real game.

There are also several other modes that are customized by PUBG partners and are made available from time to time such as Zombie, where players are pitted against each other AND a must avoid getting bitten by zombies; War, where respawning after death is possible until a certain time period; Team Deathmatch, where two teams of 8 go against each other to reach a certain number of kills first; and Events, which is when the PUBG developers are trying new additions to the game and allow players to test it out!

PUBG in Esports

As we mentioned earlier, the game has grown into a huge part of the esports industry, with dedicated tournaments of huge proportions! PUBG Esports is the official organization for the game and according to their website, it has become one of the biggest prize money games in esports. There have been over 40 tournaments so far, not including those organized by official partners outside of PUBG Esports, and in total these have awarded almost $15 million in prize money! 

Some tournaments that you may be interested in following include the PUBG Global Championship (the 2022 tournament is happening throughout November!), World Championships, Mid-Season Invitational, the PUBG Mobile World Invitational, and many more. These tournaments usually host teams organized by official esports organizations, such as GodLike Esports in India, and players work hard both as a team and individually to bring the trophy home to their country.

Because of these tournaments, esports betting in India has also become increasingly popular. Fans and casual watchers can now move from simply watching Twitch streams of their favorite games to actually betting on which player will come out on top! 

Websites like Oppa888 online casino make esports betting that much more accessible, and you know that you’re placing your trust in a reliable betting platform. You’ll find all the updated tournaments, as well as information about esports betting and various games if you just want to take a look around. So make sure you sign up for Oppa888 today and grab the opportunity to put your love and knowledge for PUBG to the test.