
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has recently released their professional e-sport league and with it a unified ruleset to be used across all regions and in the majority of PUBG competitive tournaments. In this article we will be discussing the changes in the rules and what exactly those changes mean for the competitive scene.
Scoring
A big change to the ruleset for competitive play is the scoring system. Previously for North America, Europe, and a few of the other regions, the scoring system favored placement over kills. It used to be a lot more important to make it into the top 5 rather than kill another team. The new scoring system changed that. Now, each kill is worth 1 point and a win is only worth 10 points. This will incentivize teams to go for kills rather than placements. Afterall, a 5th place is the same as killing 3 enemies. On the old ranking system, a 5th place would be the same as killing 14 enemies. That is quite the difference. If you were to add up all the points from one game, the old ranking system was 70% placement points and 30% kill points. Now it has swapped and there are 65% kill points and 35% placement points in each game. Below are the old and new scoring systems;
New Scoring System:
1st | 10 points |
2nd | 6 |
3rd | 5 |
4th | 4 |
5th | 3 |
6th | 2 |
7th | 1 |
8th | 1 |
9th | 0 |
10th | 0 |
11th | 0 |
12th | 0 |
13th | 0 |
14th | 0 |
15th | 0 |
16th | 0 |
Kill | 1 |
Old Scoring System:
1st | 400 points |
2nd | 330 |
3rd | 280 |
4th | 240 |
5th | 210 |
6th | 180 |
7th | 150 |
8th | 120 |
9th | 100 |
10th | 80 |
11th | 60 |
12th | 40 |
13th | 30 |
14th | 20 |
15th | 10 |
16th | 0 |
Kill | 16 |
Loot Settings
Another huge change to the competitive rule set are the loot settings. Previously, the loot settings for competitive were a little higher than those in regular public matches. Sniper rifles and designated marksman rifles only spawned 1.3 times more often, while assault rifles spawned 1.5 times as often. The new competitive loot settings are turned up even more now. PUBG has increased the base loot by 1.8 times, meaning there is 1.8 times as much loot for everything. In addition to that they upped the sniper rifle and designated marksman rifles up by 3 times. This means that those two rifle classes actually spawn 5.4 times more often than in the previous settings. It is rare for a player in the new competitive settings to not find the gun of their choice along with all the meds and armor they will need. The new competitive loot settings make it possible to easily find a perfect loadout, which was rare with the old loot settings.
Circle Settings
Circle settings are another aspect of competitive that PUBG has recently changed. The new circle settings make for a shorter early and mid-game, but a similar late game. Since players are able to find the loot they need to compete quicker, then they do not need as much time to loot. PUBG realized this and cut the time before the first circle moves in by almost half. The wait time before phase two circle starts to close in is also cut by almost a minute. Each circle after that is shorter by 20 to 30 seconds. The previous circle settings for competitive allowed players more time to loot, to make decisions, to engage in fights, and came with more down time. The new circle settings create a faster paced game and a lot more engagements as teams are forced together at a quicker pace. This system works great with the new score and loot settings.