Oh my word, what a weekend we had in the PUBG world. Twenty-four teams walked into the semifinals and sixteen came out after eighteen games of pure madness. Last week we spoke about different play styles and the teams likely to advance. From our selection of Hybrid and Edge style teams every single pick made it through.
© PGC
Our Aggressive selection on the other hand, missed the mark completely. Infantry and Ghost Gaming tried to play their aggressive style, but ultimately failed to net enough points to make it through. It was 4A.M. and Lazarus who took the mantle of Aggressive style kings after netting 200+ points combined in their twelve matches.
Each day in the semifinals had two teams showcase incredible performances. Friday was all about Team SoloMid and OGN Entus Force showing their domination. Saturday saw 4A.M absolutely wreak havoc in all six matches and VC Gaming scraping by to collect the remains. On Sunday, Lazarus had a bone to pick with everyone as they battled their way to 100+ points. QM was the smartest team on Sunday as they tactically approached five out of the six games and netted insane amounts of placements points.
Top picke’ems contender FaZe Clan had an abysmal performance in eleven out of the twelve games they had. Up until the final 8 minutes on Sunday they were considered out of the competition. But in those final minutes something woke in the European Champions as they went from 0 to 18 kills and a Victory on Miramar to clutch the final Playoffs spot and close out the day in style.
We are about to witness an extremely balanced Final in terms of representation, as each of the four main regions has at least 3 representatives in the Finals. Two teams remain as dark horses in the race for the trophy. South America’s honor will be defended by wClick, while GEX will represent the Master League. Japan, Oceania and Southeast Asia lost all of their representatives in the competition and will have to wait until next year’s finals for a shot at the trophy. The final lineup for next weekend’s finals at the Oakland Arena are as follows:
© PGC
Entering the Finals some of teams are facing direct competition for loot and drop locations. Over the course of the semifinals the following match-ups have occurred between the teams, which are likely to transition into the finals:
FaZe and NaVi clashed around the same compounds during their entire Saturday semifinal run. NaVi successfully gate-kept FaZe out of contention and almost ruined their chances at the Finals in a single day. But the mutually assured destruction was noticeable with both teams as third party competition kept ruining the games for whoever won the opening duel. Coming into the finals we might witness a European pride duel as the battle for the same drop locations continues, or during this week a gentleman’s understanding will be reached and both squads will seek action elsewhere.
The Four Angry Man looked absolutely unstoppable in the semis until Lazarus entered the lobby. It seemed like the NA squad had a bone to pick with the Chinese Champions as they outgunned and outperformed them in every aspect. They even went as far as to aggressively drop into Hacienda and dominate 4 A.M. on their home turf. Coming into the finals these two hyper aggressive squads are destined to go blow for blow in each of the twelve games.
The Entus squads are embroiled in a sibling fight. Both squads have very similar tactics/play patterns and will likely end up facing each other as a result. With both squads infighting for supremacy, it will likely come down to Gen.G and SKT T1 to do the bidding for Korea in the finals. Maybe Ace or Force will come out as a clear victor in their battles and use their sibling team as a point sponge.
With these six teams butting heads constantly, there is a trio of teams that are likely to third party each of their duels. TSM, VC and QM made third partying their bread and butter over the course of the event. With so many highly contested compounds, we can expect these three squads to rack up monster amounts of points just by third partying the pettiness of some squads. Finally, Tempo Storm and Genesis should not be forgotten in the roundup. Both squads do have inconsistent performances but when they are hot they wreck the server. If either of these two has a good weekend in Oakland, they can easily out duel everyone on the server.
The PGC Grand Finals commence this Saturday, November 23rd at The Oakland Arena. Tune in at twitch.tv/playbattlegrounds for all the action.
Read also: Esports Betting Odds
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