Vietnam wins the PUBG 'World Cup'

The Vietnamese team won the PNC 2025 tournament. Photo: PUBG .

On the evening of July 27th, the final day of PNC 2025 took place in Seoul, South Korea. The four members of the Vietnamese team extended their dominant performance, widening the gap with their rivals. After the final six rounds, the four athletes officially became champions, receiving a cash prize of $150,000 USD (nearly 4 billion VND ). In addition, the publisher shared nearly $500,000 USD of the contributed profits with the participating teams based on their rankings. Thus, it is estimated that the Vietnamese representatives earned nearly 8 billion VND after the tournament, which lasted only three days.

This victory once again puts the domestic region on the world PUBG map. Domestic organizations Cerberus Esports and The Expendables have both won PGC and PGS, the game's highest-level global tournaments. Winning the PUBG "World Cup" confirms Vietnam's current number one position.

PNC has a unique format compared to other esports tournaments. Instead of individual organizations, the publisher selects four players and one coach who are the best performing players of the year in the region to participate in the event. Therefore, instead of wearing their own colors, the gamers represent their entire country to compete against other nations.

Despite coming close to the championship many times, PNC remains the last PUBG title that domestic teams are missing. Before the tournament, not much was expected of this lineup, as Vietnam had previously sent more famous names to the event. However, TanVuu, Himass, Delwyn, and Sollzy delivered an incredible performance.

Rankings and prizes for the teams participating in PNC. Photo: PUBG.

At the end of the tournament, Vietnam was far ahead of its closest rival, China, with a massive lead of approximately 60 points. The team also broke the record for the highest score achieved by a region at the PNC, a record previously held by the United Kingdom.

Previously, Vietnamese Arena of Valor teams like Team Flash, Saigon Phantom, V Gaming, and the FIFA Online 4 team also won world championships. However, these games are on a smaller scale, popular only in 3-5 countries. Meanwhile, PUBG remains a global eSports title, attracting investment from many regions and boasting a high level of competition.

PUBG , or PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds , is a game that was released in beta in 2017 by the South Korean company Krafton. It's a survival shooter game that sparked a trend with numerous spin-off games. Initially, PUBG was a paid game. In 2022, it became free for all users.

Despite being a pioneer in the genre, PUBG couldn't maintain its dominance for long. The problems of hacking and cheating, poor optimization, and slow adaptation led to a decline in the number of players.

In the same genre, Epic Games' Fortnite has achieved tremendous success in the West. The game constantly updates with new modes and content to attract gamers. It remains Epic Games' "cash cow" over the years. Fortnite has sparked conflict between the publisher and app store managers like Apple and Google regarding revenue sharing.