PMCO Pakistan postpone semi-final after repetitive, damning hacking allegations

PUBG Mobile Esports launched its competitive events almost three years ago. However, while the organizers have been trying to introduce more events, they are facing the worst hacking incident since the inception of competitive tournaments. This week, the PUBG Mobile Club Open: Pakistan region was postponed for the third time in the same month to find players who have been using hacks. 

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PMCO Pakistan: PUBG in Pakistan postponed for the third time in one month due to hacking

This year, PMCO has involved multiple hacking scandals, along with team disqualifications. The events started after the organizers started an investigation which screened PMCO Pakistan teams, putting the ongoing tournament on hiatus. Post the completed investigation, PUBG Mobile released a statement announcing that a total of 19 teams – from India and Pakistan – have been banned for a lifetime. 

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We constantly strive to make PUBG MOBILE Esports a fair and competitive eco-system, with constant thorough background checks & investigations. The following teams have been found guilty using illegal software (cheats/hacks) and are therefore disqualified from the competition. pic.twitter.com/mk1S1CpNfH

— PUBG MOBILE Esports (@EsportsPUBGM) August 21, 2020

“Four teams from Pakistan are banned for a lifetime in PUBG Mobile esports," the statement read. As the entire South East Asian edition of PMCO was blamed for hacking during the event, the authorities decided to postpone the tournament in India, Pakistan and South Asia regions. The suspension of the event lasted till PUBG Mobile looked at and cleared all allegations. Over a course of four days, 19 teams were disqualified. 

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Tune into the last day of the Semi Finals of the PUBG MOBILE Club Open Fall Split 2020! #PMCO Pakistan, South Asia & India!

Watch the action live:
📺https://t.co/IGiaHr7JBO
📺https://t.co/ekDjFoCamD
📺https://t.co/rgegn6fG9Q pic.twitter.com/FIv0B4YKnA

— PUBG MOBILE Esports (@EsportsPUBGM) August 25, 2020

While fans and players expected the tournament to resume soon after, PMCO Pakistan will be continuing their investigation as they suspect having hackers in the semi-finals stage. The semi-finals stage is where 24 teams compete after having qualified via online qualifiers. While PMCO Pakistan is working towards identifying the hackers, fans and viewers debated over the anti-cheat applications used, which have reportedly been bypassed even at the semi-finals stage.

Reports even stated that though they were supposed to use an anti-cheat app, it was not used throughout the tournament. However, it is not clear if the application was not used or turned out to be ineffective. The tournament's integrity was questioned online, including their anti-cheat initiatives like Ban-Pan and the new Spectating System. 

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