The South Korean national PUBG Mobile team's quest for an Asian Games medal ended in 6th place overall. Both players and coach cited their inability to ultimately find answers in combat execution, rather than survival macro, as their biggest regret.

South Korea recorded a total of 71 points in the PUBG Mobile finals at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Aichi Sky Expo in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on the 29th. Although they launched a counterstrike by securing a Chicken Dinner in the first match of Day 2, they were unable to narrow the gap to the medal contention range. Thailand took the gold medal, China earned silver, and Pakistan took bronze.

After the matches concluded, Head Coach Yoon Sang-hoon expressed his thoughts: "Even in difficult circumstances, the players prepared hard and both teams put in a lot of effort together, so it is unfortunate that we got a worse result than expected. I feel sorry to everyone who supported us."

The biggest problem Coach Yoon pointed out was combat. While they secured a reasonable amount of placement points, the assessment was that they failed to deliver the expected performance in direct engagements against opponents.

He reflected, "I think we earned an adequate amount of placement points. However, our weakness in combat persisted through yesterday and today, and failing to resolve that led to this disappointing result."

At the end of the first day, South Korea was still in a position to chase the medal contention range. Heading into Day 2, the team received feedback aiming to help players make combat choices and decisions with more confidence. In actual competition, however, the same issues recurred.

Coach Yoon said, "From the very first day, combat was our biggest homework. We talked a lot so that players could make combat decisions with confidence, but there were many areas that remained unresolved."

In-game leader Park "FAVIAN" Sang-chul also blamed himself for failing to fully execute their prepared plan during the match. In particular, during the fourth match on Day 2, despite keeping their squad members alive, they lost momentum after failing to re-identify an opponent's position that they had previously spotted.

Park explained, "A briefing was given that an enemy player could be inside a small house, but failing to re-acknowledge that after entering the area was a huge mistake. We could have communicated our next plan in advance and proactively pulled players out to save them, so failing to create such a plan is also regrettable."

Unlike standard professional leagues, this tournament was conducted with 12 teams. While there was plenty of space to utilize early on, once surrounding teams were eliminated, opponents could focus their attacks exclusively on South Korea without worrying about other directions. The entry-denial and defensive tactics the national team used in regular leagues also failed to yield the expected results.

Coach Yoon said, "In conventional leagues, we used a plan where we entered early and held off opponents, but this time those positions were breached easily, leading to many situations where defending was far harder than expected."

Park likewise reflected, "When there are many teams on both sides around us, opponents cannot attack only South Korea. This time, as surrounding teams thinned out, there were many instances where opponents attacked while focusing solely on us, making it difficult to play our game."

The performance of gold medalist Thailand was also beyond expectations. Coach Yoon assessed that Thailand's victory stemmed from building synergy over a long time as a single-club roster, and maintaining their momentum until the end after securing a Chicken Dinner.

Coach Yoon said, "We expected Thailand to rank reasonably high, but we didn't expect them to display combat power to this extent. The driving force behind their gold medal was that players who have played together for 3 to 4 years captured a Chicken Dinner and successfully rode that momentum to the end."

The national team repeatedly expressed regret over failing to deliver the expected gold medal or a performance that would satisfy fans. At the same time, they promised to treat this tournament not as an end, but as valuable experience for their next challenge.

Park shared, "So many people supported and cheered for us, so I am deeply sorry for not delivering the promised gold medal and a satisfactory performance. This is not the end. As we return to our regular league, please keep watching us, and we will show you better performances."

Coach Yoon concluded the interview by stating, "It is disappointing that we could not live up to everyone's support and expectations, but every member of the squad worked really hard in preparation. We will work hard to show good performances once again in the regular league and international competitions."