Rafa “PIPAA” Ruppel

Hello to the entire PUBG esports community. I would like this message to be shared and translated to all regions that participate in and watch PUBG tournaments. My mental health has been severely affected, and for several days now I haven’t been able to sleep properly. That’s why I’m writing this message at 6 a.m., hoping that it will help me. The reason for this is the recent decisions made by the Krafton esports department. I kept everything inside for a long time and tried to communicate through the contacts available to me, but I was simply ignored. That’s why I believe I have the right to say everything here. To begin with, all PUBG fans remember PGC 2023 and the incident where all of our gaming PCs on stage were shut down due to a power surge. I still don’t understand how this could happen to only one team out of 16, if the power source for the entire stage was the same. We lost one game, and in the end we were just 3 points short of making the finals — a goal we had been working toward for an entire year. After this incident, two Krafton representatives invited us to a meeting to discuss the situation. They promised to talk to partner teams and find a way to compensate for this failure on the organizer’s side. However, six months later, I received an email stating that no compensation solution had been found, along with another apology. I let this situation go, thinking that such injustice toward me and my team would not happen again. Now let’s move to the most important part — something I consider extremely unfair and unsportsmanlike. We won the PUBG Players Tour Masters WEST in the TPP format. Prior to that, Krafton announced a TPP tournament in Seoul, stating that 16 teams would be invited: 10 global partners and 6 regional teams. Obviously, these teams were supposed to be the best representatives of their regions. Before the tournament, I saw the initial version of the rulebook, where Europe had 2 GPT partner teams (NAVI and TWIS) plus 1 EU slot, which likely belonged to the Masters West winner or the best team in the entire Players Tour system. Soon after, we received an email saying that we were not invited because they needed to invite a representative from Brazil. However, in the initial version of the rules, America already had 2 slots, which FURIA already occupied based on their performance at Masters AM. The rulebook was changed, a slot for Korea was added, and instead of us, BGP was invited. I understand that the organizer can invite whoever they want, and I have nothing against Pio’s team — he is a legend of this game, and it’s obvious that fans would be happy to see BGP in Seoul instead of BB. But why does Krafton lie to us? Why can’t you state the real and truthful reason why you are not inviting us? And the last thing — something that is extremely unfair and has nothing to do with the concept of a “performance invite.” The PGS tournament system is meant to be a competition where the strongest teams from all over the world face each other. If we look at last year’s results, does BB Team really not deserve to be among the 24 invited teams? I love this game. I love competing against the best players in the world. I only wish for the growth and prosperity of esports in this game. But without an open ranking system that is used to invite teams to closed tournaments, this feels more like a closed club or a show, where a few people decide others’ fates based on personal desire rather than fairness and sporting integrity. I apologize for such a long message, but right now this is vital for me. I completely understand if you choose not to comment on or support me, as sanctions could be applied to you. But if you do decide to support me and my team, then you are a person with a big heart. Thank you ❤️