The PUBG Mobile esports scene is still going strong, despite the arrival of a brand new game for the battle royale franchise soon in New State, with even more competitions on the way. The PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2021 has been formally announced, and the start of it is later this year. 

Tencent and Krafton announced the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2021 during the PUBG Mobile World Invitational, revealing just some details about the upcoming massive event. The most important esports event for the mobile title will be returning once again later this year. 

Bigger and better than ever before, the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2021 will return with more prize money, action, and excitement than even its 2020 counterpart. Perhaps the most surprising part of it all is that players and fans can look forward to it possibly being an in-person event. 

Or, at least that is the plan currently. It was revealed that Tencent Games’ director of esports James Yang hopes that the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2021 will be an in-person event (revealed via Dot Esports). However, it is worth noting that this is something that is not confirmed at this time. 

Due to the ever-changing nature of the situation in the world with COVID-19 and the current state of the global pandemic, there is no guarantee that an in-person event will be viable soon. That said, the team is currently working to ensure that it is possible even if the stars align this time around. 

As for how the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2021 will expand upon what we had earlier this year and at the end of last year, it will do so by having a much larger prize pool than we saw during the 2020 version. It will have a total of $6 million offered in the event. 

That insanely massive prize pool is around three times as much as was offered in total during the 2020 event. This shows a strong commitment to make the 2021 championship truly the largest event that the PUBG Mobile esports scene has had in its history. 

It will follow in the footsteps of the past 2020 event in having two main parts to it that will break up the tournament for several months. It will all start in November later this year when the league portion of the Global Championship will happen. 

Likely similar to how it happened last year, the top teams worldwide will compete in the league stage of the PMGC 2021 to see which teams will come out on top and earn some points and money. The league portion will only happen from November through December this year. 

After that, we will come to the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2021 Finals in January of next year. Similar to how it happened this year, the actual conclusion will happen in the following year in 2022, where the actual champion and best team in the world will be determined. 

And suppose it is anything like the Global Championship 2020 that we had in January earlier this year. In that case, it will likely result in a surprise team that will come out on top, despite not doing the best in the league stage leading up to the finals event. 

As for how teams will qualify for both the league and finals portions of the Global Championship 2021, there are two main ways. The first is having the most points out of all teams from across Pro League 2021, including the league and finals parts. 

The teams with the most points out of the PMPL 2021 will have the chance to compete for the grand title of world champion. Furthermore, the regional champions from the different parts of the world will also be invited to the PMGC 2021. 

What is, hopefully, different in the upcoming Global Championship this year is the fact that it will potentially be an in-person event, unlike it was last year. Originally, the 2020 championship also planned to be live and in-person in January earlier this year, but COVID-19 had different plans. 

The teams and everything even flew into Dubai to participate in the finals. Still, three players tested positive for COVID, resulting in the event shifting gears literally at the last minute. The teams then had to compete from their hotel rooms in Dubai remotely, rather than onstage at the Coca Cola Arena. 

Even though the Delta variant of the virus is running rampant right now, hopefully, the increase in vaccinations worldwide between now and November will lead to a possible future where we can finally see what a true LAN world championship could be like. 

What I think is interesting for the future of PUBG Mobile esports is what happens once New State arrives later this year. While it will not likely affect esports this year, could New State become the new main mobile battle royale game for Krafton to host esports starting next year?

That is possible given that PUBG New State is a highly anticipated sequel out on both Android and iOS. Or we could alternatively have two esports leagues for both PUBG Mobile and New State, but that might be dividing the community up too much. We will have to wait and see now as we may not hear more about this until after the PMGC 2021 has concluded.