Last year we wrote that despite its runaway success, "technical and creative challenges" make Playerunknown's Battlegrounds difficult to watch as an esport. That's something that PUBG Corp is aiming to overcome, as creator Brendan Greene told Eurogamer that it is now "heavily investing into setting up an esports infrastructure" that he hopes will literally bring the game to the big leagues. 

"We're building an esports team globally now, between the US and Europe and Asia, and really trying to develop out the tools we need to support esport organizations and players in order to give a good foundation," Greene said. "So, that's where I want to see [PUBG] in three years, I want to see it as a considered esport with events taking place in big stadiums and sort of year long leagues, that's what my dream for battle royale has been, that's where I want to see us go, and looking at what we're doing this year I really see that as a great chance." 

That, he explained, and not any concerns about the sudden uptick of competing games, is what led the studio to "go a little radio silent" following its release at the end of 2017, which in turn led to suggestions that it was being "reactionary" in its efforts to keep pace with the upstarts. 

"It was funny, when we released the emotes people were saying. 'Oh you're copying Fortnite'—well, no. We recorded these emotes in Prague last year, before Fortnite [Battle Royale] was even announced," he said. "We had an intention to put a means of non-verbal communication into the game because we really believe that there are some people with mics, some people without mics, so having a way for them to communicate with their squad members is essential, and it's essential for tactical gameplay." 

He also acknowledged that bugs, despite being part of what makes the PUBG experience unique, need to be stamped out before the game can be taken seriously on the esports stage. "Really we want this to be a great esport, and it can't have bugs for an esport," he said. 

"Now, that said there are not that many game-breaking bugs, you know like you see with the tournaments, there's very few people dying from bugs. And I can tell you internally there was a competition in Korea a few weeks ago that led to a change in our competitive settings because of a certain issue that happened, but the team were very quick to go, 'Okay we can fix this, let's fix it'."   

In case you missed it, PUBG Corp kicked off a second round of Savage map testing today, and those of you who picked up keys during our own PC Gamer giveaway will have access straightaway. Everyone else has until 5 am PT on April 17 to sign up for one playbattlegrounds.com. 

Update: The raffle is closed. Congratulations to the winners!

We got our first look at PUBG's new 4x4km map, Savage, two weeks ago during its first round of player testing. With a quarter of the landmass of PUBG's two existing map, the faster pace leaves less time to obsess over loot and more time for combat.

Today, the second round of player testing begins for Savage on PUBG's experimental server, and we've got 2,000 keys to give away!

We're giving away these 2,000 keys in a raffle today. Please note that entering does not guarantee a code. Click the link below and enter your email to put your name into the raffle. Today at 6 pm Pacific time we'll close the raffle and codes will be emailed to randomly-selected entrants. That's only a couple hours to participate, so enter quickly and good luck!

(Note: Godankey won't keep your email address after sending your code, and we won't see it.)

Savage will become available for testers Monday (today!), April 16, at 6 pm PDT, and the testing will end on April 18 at 6 pm PDT.

Enter below—and if you don't see a form below, enter by clicking here.

Following its recent flares and shotgun/melee custom bouts, PUBG's latest limited-time mode is named War. Billed as its "most deadly Event Mode yet", the ten-person, squad-based deathmatch free-for-all is live now through Sunday, April 15 at 7pm PST/Monday, April 16 at 3am BST. 

Set within a "small slice" of the Erangel map, games last 15 minutes and host a maximum of 30 players in ten-person teams. Unlike the familiar battle royale formula, dead players respawn in a plane before being dropped back into action—and kills earn points for each respective team. 

Albeit "extremely small", safe zone locations are fixed over the course of each match and remain the same size throughout. Red zones are disabled, the weather is locked at 'Sunny', and the first team to 200 points wins. 

Here's a teaser:

As detailed in this Steam Community update post, kills grant players three points, while Down But Not Out hits accrue just one. Likewise, revivals net single points—however team deaths/DBNOs cost five. "If no team reaches 200 points before the 15-minute time limit," says PUBG Corp, "the team with the highest score will be declared the winner."

On the loot front, players are guaranteed to spawn with a random Automatic Rifle or Designated Marksman Rifle, as well as a random Pistol, a level one Helmet and a Grenade. Higher tier loot can be scavenged from buildings and care packages, the latter of which drop in 90-second intervals. 

Having missed PUBG's flare-focussed Event Mode, I jumped into last week's shotguns and melee-only foray and had great fun. War sounds suitably chaotic. I'd love to hear from you in the comments if you've taken it for a spin.