It’s been a couple of exciting weeks of regional competition leading up to this month’s PGS 5 and 6! Here’s everything you need to know about the teams from EMEA competing in PGS, their story so far this year - and what’s on the line for each of them.
Acend Club
It was a slow start to the year for Acend, with a 16th place finish in PEC: Spring. However, the recent addition of PaiinZ to the capable roster of braex, ItzZChrizZ and KILYAKAi seems to have given the team a new-found momentum, racing into PEC: Fall with a very strong second-place showing.
Acend’s roster has a wealth of experience to draw on - indeed, they came out swinging in PGS 1 last year with a second place finish, so this is definitely a team that is capable of performing on the global stage.
With plenty of PGS Points still up for grabs in these final two tournaments, it is still possible for Acend to qualify to PGC 2024, but they’ll need to put up exceptionally strong performances at both PGS 5 & 6 to be in with a chance to secure their tickets to Malaysia. Without a doubt, the expectations - and the stakes - have never been higher for Acend!
Eternal Fire
Returning to the PGS Battlefield for the third time this year is Eternal Fire’s all-star Turkish squad of CodeMarco, Quetpa, RuerN and TheMad (previously of HOWL). The team has gone from strength to strength this year with impressive regional performances throughout - not to mention that they’ve had the chance to refine and really drill down their strategy during PGS 3 & 4, which paid off in dividends with a strong sixth place finish at PGS 4.
As a result of their strong regional performances, Eternal Fire has already secured their spot at PGC 2024 in Malaysia via the PGC Points system!
The team finished #3 overall in the EMEA PGC Points table, so it’s likely their main goal at PGS will be to get even more practice and experience playing on the global stage ahead of PGC - in addition to trying to secure as much prize money as possible at PGS!
Although Eternal Fire have already qualified to PGC 2024 (via PGC Points), they could also qualify via PGS Points if they have a particularly strong set of performances at PGS 5 and 6 and place in the Top 8 in PGS Points overall.
If that does happen, they will instead use their PGS Points to qualify to PGC 2024, and the slot they earned with PGC Points would instead be given to the next team on the EMEA PGC Points leaderboard (in this case, Virtus.pro).
FaZe Clan
FaZe’s fiercely talented veteran squad of Gustav, Fexx, Jeemzz and curexi will also be returning to the fray for PGS 5 and 6! The team has been hot on the tails of Soniqs and Twisted Minds consistently throughout the year - with an impressive third place finish at the Esports World Cup, where they narrowly missed out on the Championship title by just nine points!
Like Eternal Fire, FaZe Clan’s slot at PGC 2024 is already secured via the PGC Points they earned at regional tournaments. They’re in a similar situation to Eternal Fire in that a strong performance at the upcoming PGS Points could see them qualifying via PGS Points instead - in which case, the same mechanism would kick in as above, allowing Virtus.pro to also qualify to PGC.
Natus Vincere
It’s been a pretty great year for NAVI’s squad of Feyerist, DIFX, Hakatory and SoseD. The young squad defied expectations and have quickly graduated from regional tournaments to the global stage soon after being signed to NAVI at the end of last year!
At #7 on the PGC Points table, it will be difficult for them to qualify to PGC 2024 with PGC Points (unless Eternal Fire and FaZe Clan both qualify with PGS Points). With that said, their position on the PGS Points table does have a lot of potential - as the team is currently in #6 in terms of overall PGS Points, all they need to do is maintain their current position and they’ll be able to qualify to PGC 2024.
The result of this is that NAVI has a very realistic path to qualify to PGC 2024 if they can put up at least a decent performance across both PGS 5 & 6 - we’ll be looking forward to see if this team can maintain their current strong momentum and make it all the way to Malaysia!
Twisted Minds
To say it’s been a good year for our titans of EMEA would be an understatement. The star-studded roster of BatulinS, Lu, Perfect1ks and xmpl have had an absolutely dominant year in the regional scene, adding a championship title for each season - winning PEC: Spring, The Rotation: Summer Edition and PEC: Fall.
On the global stage, they’ve been similarly dominant - with a third place finish earlier this year in PGS 3 before sweeping PGS 4 with an electric first place finish. While they were bumped to second place in the overall PGS Points leaderboard following Soniqs’ dramatic win at the Esports World Cup, it still remains that Twisted Minds have had the most consistently strong performances at PUBG Global Series events so far this year - and we’re eager to see what they can do in Bangkok at PGS 5 and 6.
As for what this all means for their chances of qualifying to the PUBG Global Championship 2024? Well, Twisted Minds’ tickets to Malaysia are already secured. They can’t get knocked out of the Top 8 on the PGS Points table - and even if they did, they would still qualify to PGC through their performances in regional tournaments (by the way, they’re #1 on the EMEA PGC Points leaderboard by a huge margin).
No team has ever won PGS twice - we’re excited to see if Twisted Minds will be able to defend their Championship title at PGS 5 & 6!
Make sure to tune in to PGS 5 live from Oct 21 - 27 from 13:00 CEST on YouTube and Twitch!
PGC Points, EMEA
*Gaimin Gladiators in #7 can no longer make it to PGC via any of the systems.
PGS Points before PGS 5 & 6
(After both tournaments, the Top 8 will qualify)