We recently enlisted the help of one of our PUBG Esports Experts - Tobias "TheNameIsToby" Wiinblad - to take a closer look at the new maps joining the PUBG Esports map pool this year! Keep reading below for some expert insights on how Taego and Vikendi will be played:

A lot is changing in the PUBG Esports space with a ton of new utilities being added, changes to the point system and - most importantly - new maps being added to the competitive map pool! KRAFTON have added Taego and Vikendi to the esports map pool, with Taego already being in play now and Vikendi being added further down the line. 

In this article I’m going to take a quick look at Taego and how it has played as an esports map, along with my predictions on how Vikendi will impact the esports scene once added.

Ever since the removal of Sanhok as a competitive map, we have had only Erangel and Miramar in PUBG Esports, but now Taego is here and oh my, has the 1980’s South Korean inspired map already proven to be as entertaining as we all hoped it would be!

Whether the teams have been hot dropping in Palace or Terminal or landing on the edge of the map at the Airport or Ho San Prison, Taego has given us plenty of great moments already! And despite many in the community’s fear of the map being too open and lacking cover, players - having been forced to find ways around the issues - have already shown us that there are plenty of small dips and ridges which don’t look like much at first glance but are incredibly good spots to play from. 

Already now I think it’s safe to say that, despite the map having less cover than the likes of Erangel overall and fewer scattered compounds, it is still a very viable map when it comes to competitive playability.

Having talked to multiple PUBG Esports teams, it seems to me that they like the addition of the new map. It is always amazing to have something new and fresh to analyze and practice, and where we at this point have lifted every stone on Erangel and seen every inch of sand on Miramar, Taego is a whole new place for the players to study and find their playstyles on. I am personally very curious to see who will be the first teams to really master the map and learn all of its secrets.

A deadly mix

Looking at the map of Taego, one of the first things you notice is the river running through the map from the Shipyard in the north, to the island south of Hae Moo Sa, in the west. This river has, in similar fashion to the river leading from Georgopol to Yasnaya on Erangel, proven to be a deadly place to cross, as teams often set up so-called “bridgecamps” around the crossings. 

One thing that sets this river apart from the one on Erangel though, is how barren the riverbanks are (for the most part). This means that finding cover when a crossing doesn’t go as planned can be harder – compared to when things go wrong on Erangel.

Overall, the combination of open fields and boreal forests, makes Taego feel and play like perfect mix of both Erangel and Miramar. For the most part, the forests on Taego have fewer trees than the ones on Erangel, allowing the teams playing them to have more vision, but also making them easier to spot by opposing teams. In contrast, you have the fields which have more cover than the ones on Miramar, allowing you to oftentimes find cover in areas where other maps have none. 

This combination of terrain makes the tempo of the map feel very good from a viewer’s perspective. Speaking of tempo: from what we have seen in PUBG Esports matches played on Taego (up until the writing of this article), there have been quite a few fights in the early parts of the matches - this is very common when new maps are added, as players are still trying to figure out how, and from where, they are going to be playing the map. 

However, where Erangel and Miramar then tend to slow down a bit for the early midgame (between phase 2 and 4), the fact that Taego is a bit more open allows players to scout and take fights at greater distances, thus keeping the action going at a time that’s normally more quiet on Erangel and Miramar. The majority of the action we are seeing in the midgame takes place on the circle edges. This is in part because Taego in most areas of the map has fewer isolated compounds. So where on Erangel you could have four or five teams sit in a compound – and each somewhat center - on Taego that number might be as low as one or two. 

I am expecting those numbers to change as the players get more playtime on the map though, as more and more good open field spots will be found here in the early days of the new map addition.

Up next

Now let us jump over to the snowy second addition to the esports map pool, Vikendi. We have still yet to see it in competitive play, but we can already start to predict how it might play based on the terrain and layout of the map. Outside of Vikendi being an island, one of the first things that you notice with the recently updated map is that the river which once went all the way from the north to the south and split the island in two has been removed. 

This means that Vikendi is the only map in the esports map pool without any wide water crossings, which should change the pace in a lot of different scenarios. Where on Erangel and Taego you often times have to run the risk of gambling on whether or not a circle that has centered on the river will swing north or south, on Vikendi that won’t play a factor at all. 

With that said, Vikendi has its own set of problems that the players have to deal with. Whether you’re hopping on a train, taking a gondola or fighting a bear, the snowy island will force teams to think out of the box when it comes to rotations and what to expect from opponents. 

Also, where Taego lacks compounds in open areas, Vikendi has quite a few, so traversing the open fields, especially once you get further towards the center of circles, will in most, if not all, cases come with a lot of bullets flying your way, from teams sat comfortably in their compounds. So I think it’s already now safe to say that we will be seeing a lot more teams try to commit to a “go center early” strategy on Vikendi than what we’re currently seeing on the other 3 maps (RE: Erangel, Miramar, Taego).

I think it’s safe to say that we’re in for an exciting time as PUBG Esports fans with all these new changes coming and I can’t wait to see what other amazing things the future brings for our beloved game.