Vampire Esports’ 2023 domination ends with dismal PMGC exit

Vampire Esports love the PMWI. In both editions of the tournament held across 2022 and 2023, they were dominant, winning the tournaments and the Afterparty Showdown and All Stars Stage as well, respectively. This domination in PUBG Mobile esports’ mid-year tournament, however, hasn’t translated to the PMGC 2023, though.

In the PMGC 2022, they fared pretty well, placing sixth overall. In the 2023 edition, however, they were knocked out in the Group Stage itself – putting a disappointing end to an otherwise successful season. We take a look at how Vampire Esports, one of Thailand’s most successful teams, season went down.

An impressive first-half

Vampire Esports started the 2023 season with the PMPL Thailand Spring. As one of the partnered teams in the PUBG Mobile Super League (PMSL), the PMPL wasn’t a big-stakes tournament for the team. Nonetheless, they were dominant and got off to a great start to the year. They placed second, just behind Hail Esports.

In the PMSL, which is one of the world’s toughest PUBG Mobile esports leagues, they continued their good form. Here, they placed fourth and followed this up with a first-place finish in the Fall Season of the PMPL Thailand.

Their most dominant showing came at the PMWI 2023, though, when they went there to defend the title. Before the main tournament, Vampire played in a fun All-Stars stage which they also won.

The PMWI 2023 main event was also no exception as they managed to win the tournament as well on the back of some consistent performances. This made them back-to-back PMWI champions.

The second half leading to the PMGC 2023 wasn’t as exciting

Fans expected Vampire Esports to continue with their winning momentum after the dominant PMWI show. They weren’t just consistent but fared very well with rotations and aggressive gunplay against teams from other regions.

However, this didn’t happen. At the PMSL Fall 2023, they placed a lowly eighth position. They started off at the tournament on the right foot, though, and were the second-placed team after the end of Week one of the Regular Season. Things significantly went downhill after that, though, as they weren’t able to perform like they used to. Nonetheless, their antics at the local PMPL Thailand earned them a slot at the PMGC 2023.

While this presented a chance for the team to reverse their losing streak, Vampire were absolutely terrible in the competition. They were put in Group Yellow with teams like Weibo Gaming and Bigetron. The group wasn’t the toughest and coming into the group stage, many expected Vampire to be in a fighting chance for a spot in the Grand Finals.

Vampire did manage to put up a few good games. Of the 24 games, they did manage to get three chicken dinners. However, they were knocked out very early in the remaining games picking up zero placement points from 12 games.

This led to their eventual elimination. They missed out on the Survival Stage by just two points to Malaysia’s SEM9.