PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds players have had an eventful last few weeks, with a huge amount of bans kicking out 2 million players on mobile, and a fan-requested PUBG multiplayer mode announced recently. This next bit of news isn't officially confirmed, but a rumor with some credence says that a tournament mode is coming to PUBG soon.
Many PUBG players were excited to finally have Ranked Solo confirmed, which comes to bolster the game's other modes like Duos and Squads. It took over three years for PUBG to get ranked mode, which came out earlier this year and added fresh new ways to engage in the battle royale. Recent leaks claim that there's yet another new mode coming to the game, and it's described as a "tournament-style" change from the usual battle royale format.
A leaker known as PlayerIGN claims that the new mode will be called Vostok and combine FPS with the auto battler genre, also known as auto chess, popularized by the mod DOTA 2 Auto Chess. This style of game is more turn-based and strategic, and gives players the opportunity to recruit or upgrade current units which will then "auto battle" the opponents' units, much like how in a game of chess the player doesn't play a bishop capturing a knight, for example, but maneuvers that piece into a place where it can defeat the opponent.
PlayerIGN's video discusses Vostok and suggests that it will be made up of 1v1 situations where players have to fight against each other with limited spawns. With three lives each, players would rotate through encounters where they have a chance to win money and upgrade their gear each time they succeed until one player emerges victorious.
Obviously this would be a huge difference than what most PUBG players are used to, especially since most PUBG updates add ferries and other features that don't really switch up the gameplay a whole lot. Vostok sounds like almost a completely different game, although according to this leaker, it would incorporate existing elements from PUBG and just put a new spin on them.
Naturally, this is just a leak, and as such there's no current official backing to Vostok existing and players should take all this information with a grain of salt. Still, it's interesting to think about whether this would be a fun mode to play, and see how it would shake up the current PUBG situation. After all, many people point at PUBG as the game that started the battle royale hype a few years ago, so maybe it's time for PUBG to bring more innovation to the table.
PUBG is available now on mobile devices, PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.