Nongshim RedForce came to Mumbai as favourites and won BMIC 2026 by 82 points. The second BGMI International Cup ran from October 30 to November 1 at The Dome, SVP Indoor Stadium, with 16 teams (six from India, five each from South Korea and Japan) playing 18 matches for a ₹1 crore prize pool and two PUBG Mobile Global Championship (PMGC) 2026 tickets.
Korea won again. DRX took the first BMIC in 2025, NS RedForce took this one, and Korean teams filled the whole podium. Behind them, an Indian side finished seven points short of a PMGC slot, India’s domestic champion never got going, and Japan had a weekend to forget.
I was in the stands at the Dome for all three days, so some of what follows comes from the seats as much as from the scoreboard.
Winners
Nongshim RedForce
This was never a title race. NS RedForce led after Day 1 with 72 points, led after Day 2 with 128, and went into Match 18 with a 67-point cushion. They won that one too, a 21-point Chicken Dinner on Miramar.
From where I sat, the moment NS RedForce sealed it was the strangest of the weekend. The Dome went almost completely silent: a room full of Indian fans who had spent three days hoping for a different name on that trophy, watching it go to Korea again.
Over 18 matches they scored 233 points, with 148 finishes and five Chicken Dinners, all event highs. DRX were next on 151. After NSR’s 28-point win on Miramar in Match 12 and their 24-point, 14-finish win in Match 14, everyone else was playing for second.
The title is worth ₹30 lakh and a PMGC 2026 Gauntlet spot. With the Korean Esports League 2026 title and a runner-up finish behind S2G Esports at the PUBG Mobile World Cup 2026 in Paris already this year, NS RedForce go to the world championship as one of the most in-form teams anywhere.
XZY and Soez
XZY took MVP with 45 finishes and 9,572 damage, and Soez won Best IGL. Soez’s rotations kept NSR in the right spots, and XZY turned them into points.
DRX
DRX were quieter than NS RedForce and did just enough. Joint second on 105 after Day 2, they slipped to third on the final day, then answered with a 24-point, 14-finish Chicken Dinner on Erangel in Match 16 that put them back in second.
They went into Match 18 with Gladiators three points behind and Dplus KIA four behind, and six points were enough. DRX finished on 151 with two Chicken Dinners, took ₹15 lakh and booked a place in the PMGC 2026 Group Stage. Having won the first BMIC in New Delhi, they now have two podiums from two editions.
Gladiators Esports
GDR missed PMGC, and they still belong in this column. India’s best team at BMIC finished fourth with 144 points, three Chicken Dinners and 98 finishes, the third-highest finish count in a lobby full of Korean fraggers.
Sunday was pure GDR chaos. Sitting sixth on 79 points after Day 2, they treated the final day like a personal grudge match and piled on 65 points. A 23-point Chicken Dinner in Match 15 had the Dome on its feet. A 17-point Miramar win in Match 17 dragged them into the top three, three points off DRX, and suddenly every Indian fan in the building was doing PMGC maths on their fingers. Then Dplus KIA’s Favian turned up early in Match 18 like an uninvited guest at a wedding, GDR scored two points, and Gladiators’ PMGC 2026 dream ended seven points short.
Anyone who has followed this roster will not be surprised. At BMSD they climbed from 22nd in the semi-finals to finish runner-up in the Grand Finals, and in Mumbai they went toe to toe with Korea’s best and won three matches. They left without the ticket but with ₹7.5 lakh for fourth, and for a few hours on Sunday they had the whole room on its feet.
Team Outrage and K9 Esports
Team Outrage were the last Indian team through the door, sixth at BMSD with 123 points. In Mumbai they finished fifth with 125 points and two Chicken Dinners, the second-best Indian side. Their Match 13 win on Rondo even pulled them into the PMGC conversation early on Day 3, eight points off a slot after Match 14.
K9 Esports were not far behind in sixth with 116 points and two Chicken Dinners. They opened Day 2 with a 17-point win on Rondo, the spark for India’s Day 2 recovery after Korea swept the top three on Day 1. Taurus also took home the Best Clutch award.
Neither team was a title threat. Both outperformed their BMSD seeding, and both finished ahead of the Indian champion.
South Korea
Korea has now won both BMIC editions. This time Korean teams took the top three places, NS RedForce, DRX and Dplus KIA won 10 of the 18 Chicken Dinners between them, and both PMGC places on offer went to Korea.
The Indian crowd
The Indian teams had the loudest support in the building, whether they were chasing PMGC or just a good fight. When GDR or K9 picked up a Chicken Dinner, you heard it before you saw it on the screen. Korea has both BMIC trophies, but the noise at the Dome was Indian.
Losers
Team SouL
India expected the most from Team SouL. They arrived in Mumbai as BMSD 2026 champions, having come back from 28 points down on the final day to win that event with 155 points. At the Dome they finished 12th.
They scored 87 points with no Chicken Dinners and just 18 placement points in 18 matches. A flat Day 1 left them chasing, Day 2 lifted them to ninth on 72 points, and the final day added only 15 more. Five Indian teams finished above them.
On paper SouL lost nothing, since their PMGC place was already secured at BMSD. But they are now India’s only team at the world championship, and this was a bad time to go cold.
Japan
Japan’s five teams left Mumbai with one Chicken Dinner between them. KINOTROPE were the best of the group in eighth on 95 points, and three of the bottom four spots were Japanese.
The two sharpest drops came from the top of PMJL. Valor, Japan’s league champions, finished 15th on 64 points; their Day 2 Erangel win was the region’s only Chicken Dinner. Versus, third in PMJL, finished last with 23 points and 13 finishes over 18 matches. Valor still go to PMGC through their league title, but the question marks around Japan’s international level only got bigger.
Dplus KIA
Dplus KIA won three Chicken Dinners and were joint second after Day 2, and still missed out. They finished on 149, two points behind DRX. In Match 18 they did their part, eliminating Gladiators early and scoring eight points, but DRX added six and held on.
Third place pays ₹10 lakh. For the KEL 2026 runners-up, missing a world championship slot by two points over 18 matches will sting far longer than the money helps.
India’s PMGC count
India had up to three PMGC 2026 places available across BMSD and BMIC and ended with one. No Indian team qualified through BMIC, and the home event still has no Indian champion after two editions. Gladiators showed on Sunday that the gap can close for a day, but over three days it was 89 points between India’s best team and Korea’s.
Team 8Bit and Daejeon GamePT
Team 8Bit led BMSD after both opening days and won three matches there. At BMIC they finished ninth with 93 points and no Chicken Dinners, never a factor in the PMGC race.
Daejeon GamePT fell away more quietly. Fourth after Day 2 on 88 points, they scored 24 on Sunday, slid to seventh and finished the event without a win.
Final standings
| Rank | Team | Region | WWCD | Finishes | Points | Prize (₹) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NS RedForce | South Korea | 5 | 148 | 233 | 30,00,000 + PMGC Gauntlet |
| 2 | DRX | South Korea | 2 | 99 | 151 | 15,00,000 + PMGC Group Stage |
| 3 | Dplus KIA | South Korea | 3 | 88 | 149 | 10,00,000 |
| 4 | Gladiators Esports | India | 3 | 98 | 144 | 7,50,000 |
| 5 | Team Outrage | India | 2 | 83 | 125 | 6,25,000 |
| 6 | K9 Esports | India | 2 | 80 | 116 | 4,50,000 |
| 7 | Daejeon GamePT | South Korea | 0 | 87 | 112 | 3,75,000 |
| 8 | KINOTROPE | Japan | 0 | 62 | 95 | 3,75,000 |
| 9 | Team 8Bit | India | 0 | 66 | 93 | 2,50,000 |
| 10 | Blitz Epigrotive Gaming | India | 0 | 59 | 89 | 2,50,000 |
| 11 | REIGNITE | Japan | 0 | 50 | 88 | 2,00,000 |
| 12 | Team SouL | India | 0 | 69 | 87 | 2,00,000 |
| 13 | FOCUS | South Korea | 0 | 55 | 81 | 1,50,000 |
| 14 | Making The Road | Japan | 0 | 49 | 75 | 1,50,000 |
| 15 | Valor | Japan | 1 | 43 | 64 | 1,25,000 |
| 16 | Versus | Japan | 0 | 13 | 23 | 1,25,000 |
Awards: XZY (NS RedForce) MVP, Soez (NS RedForce) Best IGL, Taurus (K9 Esports) Best Clutch.
From the stands: a fan’s wish for next year
KRAFTON India put on a proper international show, from the stage at the Dome to Alan Walker’s set on opening day, and by Sunday the Dome was close to full.
Friday and Saturday were different. There was room to spare in the stands on the first two afternoons, partly because weekday and Saturday afternoon slots are hard for any event. Sitting there, I also kept thinking about who was missing. Jonathan and Team Apex Gaming fell short at BMSD, and few names in BGMI fill seats the way Jonathan does.
Qualification should stay merit-based, and Apex missed out fairly. As a fan, though, I would love to see a way to keep the biggest crowd-pullers in the building for marquee events like BMIC, whether that is an invitational slot, a showmatch or a creator segment between days. A little star power on the first two days would help the crowd match the quality of the competition.
