“Proud to announce the PUBGMOBILE Global Championship season ZERO! Where all the Top Professional invited teams across all regions will participate, including China to crown the Global Champion this year 2020! The event will host a prize pool of 2 million USD,” read the announcement on Tencent’s Twitter account.

The PMGC is the result of Tencent’s decision to merge the PUBG Mobile World Leagues (PMWL) and PUBG Mobile World Championship (PMWC), which were postponed and reshaped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new event features the largest prize pool in PUBG Mobile history. The $2 million kitty is almost five times the previous best of $476,000 at the PUBG Mobile Club Open Fall Split Global Finals and ranks among the top 35 esports prize funds of all time.

The move from Tencent mimics a similar play made by the Electronic Sports League (ESL) in March, when it was announced that the ESL One Rio Major for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive would merge with the 2020 Fall Major to form a single CS:GO Major with an increased prize pool.

The PMGC will feature 20 leading teams from all regions of the world, including China, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Americas and Europe.
Teams will have the chance to qualify for the event via the ongoing PUBGM Club Opens (PMCO) and PUBGM Pro Leagues (PMPL).

Not many details about the tournament have been revealed as yet, but it is expected the inaugural season of the PMGC will use a similar format to the PMWL. There are also plans for the tournament to be held across multiple venues with live audiences if the COVID-19 situation becomes more manageable by November.

Alongside the announcement of the PMGC, Tencent also unveiled the upgraded 1.0 version of PUBGM, which is scheduled to go live on Tuesday, September 8 and will feature new technology to go along with the improved gameplay features.

Updates include improvements to characters and their movement, the game’s main lobby environments, weapons, maps, and the gameplay itself with the addition of detailed particles, smoke, air blasts, and other lightning and shading effects for a more realistic feel.

The announcement of PMIS 2020 surfaced on Sunday with a short video on the official PUBG Mobile India YouTube channel that showcased some highlights from the inaugural event in 2019. The video, however, was more of a teaser than an announcement, as it did not unveil any extra information about the upcoming competition.

This year’s PMIS will feature 50 Lakh or 5,000,000 Indian Rupee (~US $65,550) in total prize money. The 2019 event saw the top 20 teams out of more than 575,000 registrations compete in the finals, but it is not yet known how many teams will make the cut in 2020.

The first edition of the PMIS ran for almost four months and was considered the biggest PUBG Mobile tournament to ever be held in India. It played a pivotal role in laying the foundation for the Indian PUBG Mobile esports scene and led to the formation of many new rosters, some of which have gone on to establish themselves among the top teams in the world.

The biggest storylines of PMIS 2019 was Team SouL, who defied the odds to claim the title with 2520 points and 46 kills. Several players from that side are now well-known members of the PUBG esports community. Mohammed “Owais” Lakhani and Harpreet Singh “RonaK” Janjuha ended up leaving for Team Xspark, who were later picked up by Fnatic, while Kanishk “Slayer” Shah left SouL to join TeamIND.

It is likely that PMIS 2020 will be a standalone competition in India, meaning it won’t be included in the global PUBG Mobile esports ecosystem alongside the Pro League, World League and Club Opens.

The company is set to invest $15 million to market the game in the country and build a new, exciting player base.

A big part of Tencent’s focus in its campaign will be fighting piracy, which is a common crime in the country that has robbed digital industries for more than a decade.

Tencent is going big with this project. One of the company’s goals it to create a new, competitive league.

This will be China’s first Fortnite esports scene, but not the first battle royale competition. Other games like H1Z1 and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) have already made the transition into esports.

The Chinese Fortnite will allow players to transfer their data from the game’s original version. Rumours abound that the new version of Fortnite will have an accompanying smartphone app to be used as a companion for the game. Also, those that pre-order can expect to receive rewards.

This moves guarantees Tencent’s control over the Battle Royale genre.

In addition to its Chinese expedition, Tencent also announced that Arena of Valor/Honor of Kings is making it to the US. The popular MOBA game will get its own World Cup with an incredible prize of $500,000.