Krafton has ended its newly launched Asian tournament for PUBG: Battlegrounds early amid allegations that Vietnamese participants gained outside information during matches, which was aggravated by the organizer's inappropriate response.
Krafton announced through the official PUBG: Battlegrounds community on Sunday that it would cancel the remaining matches of PUBG Asia Stars 2026.
PUBG Asia Stars, which began on Thursday, is an online exhibition tournament featuring 48 professional players, streamers and other participants from six Asian regions — Korea, China, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The controversy began on the tournament’s opening day when allegations emerged that Vietnamese participants had engaged in what Korean gamers call “bangpl,” a form of stream sniping in which players obtain outside information about opponents’ locations or circumstances through online broadcasts. Bangpl is a shortened combination of the Korean word bang, which means room, and play.
Two Vietnamese participants acknowledged that they received outside information about the match while playing with the chat window from their own livestreams displayed on secondary monitors. They said, however, that they did not directly watch their opponents’ streams.
The two apologized and said they did not intend to gain an unfair advantage, but acknowledged the information may have benefited them or affected other teams.
Korean participants and fans called on the organizer to take action, but it did not immediately remove the participants from the tournament. The controversy also escalated into online disputes between Korean and Vietnamese users.
Only after criticism mounted did Krafton disclose the names of the two Vietnamese participants on Saturday and bar them from the remaining matches.
The Krafton logo is displayed at the company’s booth at the Gamescom gaming convention in Germany in August 2024.YONHAP
All eight Korean participants, however, boycotted that day’s matches in protest of Krafton’s response. The Korean participants also raised concerns that Krafton had told them the Vietnamese participants would issue an apology acknowledging the stream sniping allegations, but the actual apology differed from what they had been told.
Krafton said in a notice Sunday that it had confirmed the two players accessed information outside the game through their personal livestreams. The company said it was still investigating whether they directly watched other participants’ livestreams, whether they used the outside information during actual gameplay and whether any additional information was transmitted or received.
Krafton also decided to revoke the players’ status as official PUBG partners in Vietnam.
“We will continue our investigation to the end based on objectively verifiable evidence,” Krafton said, adding that it would take further action if additional violations are confirmed.
Prize money will be distributed to all participating regions under the same criteria, while separate compensation related to events affected by the canceled matches will be announced later.
Sponsors also began taking action. Coffee brand 10Billion Coffee, a tournament sponsor, said Sunday that it was “taking steps to temporarily suspend sponsorship activities, including related commercials, menu items and events, starting today.”
Chicken chain Kkanbu Chicken also temporarily suspended related promotions and events Sunday. It said it would review the tournament organizer’s final investigation results and measures to prevent a recurrence.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
