Myanmar’s national PUBG MOBILE team, Team Zanaka, finished 12th out of 12 national teams at the 2026 Asian Games esports finals for PUBG MOBILE, held on 28-29 September 2026 in Japan. The team scored 28 points across 12 matches, well behind 11th-placed Uzbekistan (43) and a fraction of gold medallist Thailand’s 128. The full standings were published by esports outlet Sportskeeda shortly after the event concluded on 29 September 2026; the medal places and Thailand’s winning total match those reported by Bangkok-based Khaosod English.
Myanmar Tech Press was notified of Team Zanaka’s participation in a press release sent by Vero Myanmar on behalf of PUBG MOBILE on 25 September 2026, three days before the event began. That release, distributed before a single match had been played, understandably contained no results — only the announcement that Team Zanaka would compete, a description of how the team qualified, and quotes framing the trip as a milestone for Myanmar esports. This article reports what the release could not: how the tournament actually went.
What PUBG MOBILE Said Before the Event
According to PUBG MOBILE, Team Zanaka earned its place at the Asian Games by finishing in the top 8 of 23 Asian teams at the official PUBG MOBILE Asian Games Qualifiers. Myanmar Tech Press was not able to independently verify this qualifier result — the relevant Liquipedia pages returned an access error (HTTP 403) when checked — so this figure is reported as PUBG MOBILE’s claim rather than an independently confirmed fact.
The release also named Myanmar’s expected opponents: host nation Japan, plus South Korea, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Iran. That list does not match the field that actually competed. The 12 teams that appear in the final standings are Thailand, China, Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Jordan, Japan, Malaysia, Uzbekistan and Myanmar. Saudi Arabia and Iran are not among them, while Pakistan, Chinese Taipei, Jordan, Malaysia and Uzbekistan — all named in the final results — are absent from the release’s opponent list. Myanmar Tech Press cannot say from the available sources whether this was a late change to the field, an error in the release, or a mix-up with a different bracket; it is simply a discrepancy worth noting, since it means the pre-event release described a different tournament than the one that was actually played.
PUBG MOBILE Country Manager Aman Kumar was quoted in the release saying he was proud to see young Myanmar players getting more opportunities on international stages, and encouraged fans to support the team. Team Zanaka’s National Team Manager, Ko Weiyan Myomyat, was quoted calling the trip a big challenge against national teams from what he described as the best 12 countries in Asia, and said the players had prepared to deliver the best possible result. The release was issued in Burmese; both quotes are paraphrased here in our own translation. As of 30 September 2026, Myanmar Tech Press had not found a public statement from Team Zanaka or PUBG MOBILE responding to the final result.
What Actually Happened: 12th of 12, and a Day 2 Collapse
The tournament ran across two days at what has been reported as the Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, with 12 matches total — six per day — played on the maps Erangel and Miramar. After Day 1 (28 September), Myanmar was sitting 10th of 12 with 17 points, ahead of Malaysia (15) and Jordan (11). Sportskeeda’s match-by-match summary of Day 1 mentions Myanmar twice: 5 points in Match 3 and 8 points, including 5 eliminations, in Match 4.
Day 2 went the other way. By our calculation (28 total points minus the 17 scored on Day 1), Myanmar managed only 11 points across its six Day 2 matches — while Malaysia added 32 points and Jordan added 50, enough to vault both teams past Myanmar in the final table. Myanmar dropped two places, from 10th to 12th, and finished with no team below it. The reports Myanmar Tech Press reviewed do not break down Myanmar’s Day 2 match by match, so it is not possible to say which matches or circumstances caused the drop-off. What the numbers do show is that Myanmar was 10th at the halfway point and last at the end.
How Big Was the Gap to the Rest of the Field?
The scale of the gap is worth spelling out. Myanmar’s 28 points left it 15 points behind 11th-placed Uzbekistan and 100 points behind champion Thailand. Put another way, Thailand’s Day 1 score alone (75 points) was more than two and a half times Myanmar’s entire two-day total. Over the full 12 matches, Thailand won three chicken dinners (match wins) and recorded 75 eliminations, according to Sportskeeda. Inven Global described the gold as Thailand’s first PUBG MOBILE esports podium at the Asian Games, and Khaosod English reported that each member of the winning roster will receive THB 2 million from Thailand’s National Sports Development Fund, THB 10 million in total. China (114) took silver and Pakistan (100) bronze.
Myanmar was also the lowest-placed of the five Southeast Asian teams in the field. Vietnam (95) and Indonesia (95) finished 4th and 5th — well inside the top half — while Thailand won gold outright. Malaysia, the other SEA team, finished 10th with 47 points, having been behind Myanmar at the end of Day 1.
The Second Myanmar Team to Finish Near the Bottom This Month
Team Zanaka’s result follows a similar pattern set two and a half weeks earlier by Yangon Galacticos, Myanmar’s PUBG MOBILE club champions and PMWC 2025 title holders, who finished 12th of 16 teams at the PMGO Season 2 SEA Finals (11-13 September 2026). Both events were the subject of press releases distributed through the same agency, Vero Myanmar, on behalf of PUBG MOBILE. Neither release reported Myanmar’s final placing: this one because it was sent before the first match, the Yangon Galacticos release because, although it was sent after the event, it described the trip as valuable international experience without mentioning where the team finished. In both cases, the placing came from third-party esports coverage, and in both cases the Myanmar team finished in the bottom quarter of its field.
Two data points from a single month are not proof of a trend, and it would be overreaching to draw firm conclusions about the state of Myanmar’s competitive PUBG MOBILE scene from two tournaments alone. Neither Team Zanaka nor Yangon Galacticos nor PUBG MOBILE has offered a public explanation for either result, and Myanmar Tech Press has not found reporting that identifies a specific cause — such as practice time, scrim access, internet connectivity, or roster changes — for either team’s performance, so none is asserted here. What can be said is that, within roughly three weeks, two different Myanmar PUBG MOBILE squads, one a club and one a national team, went to two separate international events and finished 12th of 16 and 12th of 12. Readers who followed the Yangon Galacticos result will recognise the shape of this one.
It is also worth stating plainly: reaching the Asian Games esports finals at all, by PUBG MOBILE’s own account, meant finishing ahead of 15 of the 23 teams at the qualifying stage. Finishing last among 12 national teams at a continental multi-sport event is a difficult result, but it is not the same as failing to qualify, and the players who went to Aichi did so as one of only 12 nations in the final.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Team Zanaka?
Team Zanaka is the name used for Myanmar’s national team at the PUBG MOBILE Asian Games Version event. According to PUBG MOBILE, it qualified by finishing in the top 8 of 23 Asian teams at the official Asian Games Qualifiers; Myanmar Tech Press could not independently verify this qualifying result.
How did Myanmar place at the 2026 Asian Games PUBG MOBILE event?
12th out of 12 competing national teams, with 28 points across two days and 12 matches (28-29 September 2026), according to standings published by Sportskeeda.
Who won the PUBG MOBILE event at the 2026 Asian Games?
Thailand won gold with 128 points, three match wins and 75 eliminations, according to Sportskeeda; Inven Global described it as Thailand’s first PUBG MOBILE esports podium at the Asian Games. China took silver (114) and Pakistan bronze (100).
Did Myanmar play against Saudi Arabia and Iran, as the pre-event release said?
No. The pre-event release named Saudi Arabia and Iran among Myanmar’s expected opponents, but neither country appears in the final 12-team standings. The actual field included Pakistan, Chinese Taipei, Jordan, Malaysia and Uzbekistan instead, none of which were named in the release.
Where was the event held?
Reporting ahead of the event placed it at the Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, as part of the wider 2026 Asian Games (19 September – 4 October 2026) hosted across the Aichi-Nagoya region.
Where This Leaves Team Zanaka
Team Zanaka’s trip to Japan was framed, in PUBG MOBILE’s own pre-event messaging, as evidence of Myanmar esports’ progress on regional and international stages. The team did qualify for a 12-team continental final, which is itself not a small achievement. But the result on the ground — a slide from 10th to 12th over the tournament’s second day, a 100-point gap to gold, and a finish behind every other Southeast Asian team in the bracket — is the part of the story a press release sent before the first match couldn’t tell. Combined with Yangon Galacticos’ 12th-of-16 finish earlier the same month, it leaves Myanmar’s PUBG MOBILE representatives with two bottom-quarter finishes at two separate international events inside a single month, and, as far as Myanmar Tech Press has found, no public explanation yet from any of the parties involved.
Sources: Burmese-language press release from Vero Myanmar on behalf of PUBG MOBILE, dated 25 September 2026 (emailed to Myanmar Tech Press; no public URL). Sportskeeda, “Asian Games 2026 PUBG Mobile Day 1 overall standings, highlights” (published 2026-09-28), sportskeeda.com. Sportskeeda, “Asian Games 2026 PUBG Mobile winner, overall standings, summary” (published 2026-09-29), sportskeeda.com. Khaosod English, “Thailand Wins PUBG Mobile Gold at Asian Games 2026” (published 2026-09-29), khaosodenglish.com. Inven Global, “Thailand wins PUBG Mobile gold at the 2026 Asian Games,” invenglobal.com. EEGaming, “Asian Games esports finals for PUBG Mobile set for Sept 28-29 in Japan” (published 2026-09-21), eegaming.org — venue detail reported from this preview and not independently confirmed. Myanmar Tech Press, “Yangon Galacticos Went to Malaysia as Myanmar’s World Champions. They Came Home in 12th Place.” (published 2026-09-18), en.myanmartechpress.com.