Meet Team Soul, PUBG Mobile squad representing India in Berlin

PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 winning squad ‘Team Soul’ will represent India at the global finals in Berlin. Team Soul talks about their experience and how their aim in being professional PUBG Mobile streamers.

Team Soul at the PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 finals. (PUBG Mobile)

PUBG Mobile's popularity in India has been exceeding with time. The battle royale game is also fuelling the eSports community in India. It recently concluded 'PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019' tournament where over 35,000 teams participated.

Organised by Vivo this time, the PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 started on March 22 which saw teams from different countries competing for the grand finale. The winning team from each participating country will now face off for the global finals in Berlin and win the prize pool of $2.5 million. Representing India is 'Team Soul' featuring four PUBG Mobile enthusiasts from Mumbai.

Team Soul is fairly new as a group having formed only last December. The four-member team however spends most of their time playing PUBG Mobile online and practicing throughout the day. Aged between 17 and 22, Team Soul features Naman, Yash, Harpreet and Mohammed.

We spoke to Team Soul on their win and about their experience playing PUBG Mobile. Here are the edited excerpts of the interview.

How do you guys manage teamwork in your squad?

First thing is practicing and playing together. When we play together we understand each other better, we fill up communication gaps. Mainly it is communication and strategy. We look at teams from foreign countries how they play and we've learned from them. Learning from them we manage to gain that confidence and apply it in the final event.

How strong was your communication through the finals?

There were moments where we were still not perfect at it and certain calls which we did not focus on and it cost us our match. We still need more practice before the global finals.

How is your practice schedule like?

All four of us are YouTube streamers so when we stream and play it's mostly for fun but it keeps our hands warm. Off stream we discuss about strategies. It's not necessary to play off stream all the time but it's important to discuss strategies. We also play practice matches regularly from 3 to 5 pm and there'll be a two, three hour break and 7 till 9 onwards.

What is the most striking thing about PUBG Mobile?

First thing is communication as we are always connected with each other. Secondly, since it's a strategy-based game so it's exciting to try out new strategies so we have fun doing that. Apart from that streaming PUBG Mobile, having random talks we enjoy doing this.

Which phone do you prefer to play PUBG Mobile? Have you tried any gaming phones?

I prefer OnePlus 7 Pro to play PUBG Mobile. I've tried ROG but I did not really enjoy it. There were a lot of frame drops especially when the battery is low. Also, we cannot stream using ROG since it's very complicated. You have to do the correct wiring and you need audio splitters. Currently, OnePlus 7 Pro is a very streamer friendly device.

How do you think other gaming companies can help popularise eSports in India?

Just how PUBG Mobile has been investing in keeping such huge events with huge prize pools if other games come up with such events I'm pretty sure that eSports is going to become much better and can be used as a career option.

What are your future plans on gaming professionally?

We are playing professionally right now and our future plan is YouTube livestreaming. We're going to focus much more on this but we are also going to play tournaments.

Who are your favourite streamers?

Mine is ninja in particular. Dr Disrepespect's streams are very entertaining and his gameplay is also very good.