Boars Gaming's PUBG Mobile coach Dmytro "Bamb1ni" Kuzhmenko gave an interview to Players. He spoke about forming a new roster and combining his work as a coach with teaching at a university.
Boars Gaming has a new lineup, PUBG Mobile, and you're the coach. What's the hardest part for you at the start?
The English language. We have a roster where the entire team is from France. So in everyday life the team communicates in French. We have a rule that communication outside the game is in English. But that moment of quick in-game communication happens in French, and my English isn't strong enough to communicate comfortably with native French speakers.
How do you handle understanding French when reviewing demos and analyzing TeamSpeak?
We worked through the basics straight away. That's exactly why the team now has an assistant coach — he's Belgian, French-speaking, but with very good English. Team captain Snowix put together a short French language guide for me. Right now I understand between 50 and 100 of the most commonly used words — "right," "left," "behind," "push," "rotation," and so on. When I need a specific conversation, either Snowix or the team analyst Adri from Belgium translates. And modern technology helps too — Google is useful for quick translations between games.
Was there ever an idea to just switch everyone to English?
When this roster was being formed, we tested 30 players over 31 days — with different levels of interviews, VOD reviews, real-time tests, work on briefings and debriefings. And the best option turned out to be a French-speaking roster. The reason is simple — communication speed during a match. Your native language matters enormously in-game. We even tested this: player Robbz was putting up a 1.5 KD in English, and after switching to French — 2.29 KD. But outside the game, all the players are ready to speak English.
What does a typical day look like for you as a coach?
Around 3 PM Kyiv time — team meeting. An hour and a half: reviewing past matches — 30 slides of mistakes, visual and graphical analysis, possible ways to address the problems. Then one or two packs of practice games — between 4 and 12 games. After that a 15-minute debrief — but it's not about mistakes, it's about what we want to work on tomorrow. My workday is between 8 and 12 hours, starting at 2 PM Kyiv time.
Another complication is that our captain is French but lives in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, so he finishes his gaming day three hours later than me. Most organizational matters we handle in the first half of the day, when it's convenient for everyone.
How do you combine this with university?
Thursday and Friday are the only days when classes finish at four, and the daily meeting happens without me. On all other days — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday — I finish by two, so everything works out. Plus we respect Western European traditions: we always have a day off — either Saturday or Sunday, but never both.
Can you influence tactical decisions during a match?
During a match — no. Any serious team operates according to the LAN event format, where the coach only communicates with the team between maps. Online, there are ways to work with the team through not entirely legitimate means — we chose to move away from that. BOARS Gaming has not used those methods since September 2024. We prepare players for the LAN format.
Between maps there's a maximum of 10 minutes — in that time you're more likely to confuse someone than explain anything substantial. So between maps — only minimal adjustments: rotations by position, basic changes to the approach against the opponent. Macro is what gets practiced before the tournament, not during it.
Are you more of a friend or a strict manager to your players?
From the very first day at BOARS Gaming, management gave me authority that coaches in PUBG Mobile don't usually have. I'm not an add-on to the roster — I'm the team leader. The concept is close to what Amorim said when he stated he came not as a coach but as a manager. Or like Man United under Alex Ferguson — there's a leader figure who shapes the staff and the roster. The structure is completely vertical. It's a very unusual experience for PUBG Mobile, where a coach mostly plays a supporting role.
Do you plan any unconventional practices — like a bootcamp without phones?
I'd love to, but I look at the ecosystem. In PUBG Mobile in a year — not counting the eSports National Cup — there are only 4 club Tier 1 tournaments. In CS in a year — around 30 competitive LANs. With that kind of budget a club simply can't afford what Astralis or Falcons do. We do have team building, but it happens online — because that's how the ecosystem works.
On top of that, the PUBG Mobile partner program is currently running mostly on a barter basis — not like it was two years ago. The main thing right now is for PMGO in Indonesia and EWC in Riyadh to happen. Those are the two Tier 1 tournaments after which we'll be able to assess how much the ecosystem motivates teams to invest.
What has been the most memorable moment for you working with BOARS?
The fact that we qualified for the club Global PMGC 2025 with two different rosters over the course of a year. The community was predicting we'd finish 45th–50th — we finished 27th. For a team that was rebuilding mid-season and lost several key players — that's a very solid result. And what's especially pleasing is that both parts of the roster competed at the club world championship as two separate teams.
How large is the gap between Europe and Asia in PUBG Mobile?
Enormous. Southeast Asia is the frontline zone of mobile gaming: Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam — they always have no fewer than 7 slots at global tournaments. China is an entirely separate world with closed statistics. They have their own National League — which inside the country scales in terms of numbers more than global events do across the rest of the world. For the Chinese, PUBG Mobile is part of the culture, like football in Britain. Then there's Korea and Japan — with separate rights to organize the tournament process.
India deserves a separate mention. In 2025 it returned to the global ecosystem after three years of competitive ban. And you can immediately see what kind of audience that is. During last year's Global, when I looked at the statistics from our Instagram announcement of the new roster — India was in first place with 15.3% of views. There isn't a single Indian player on the roster. That's the level of their engagement.
Top countries in mobile gaming — Southeast Asia, Korea, Japan, China as its own separate world, then Mongolia, Pakistan, India, Arab countries, Turkey, Brazil, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan.
How was Ukraine distributed in the regional leagues and why is that a problem?
The question is deeper than it seems. From the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, Tencent disbanded the CIS region — 15 countries at once. In autumn 2022, most post-Soviet countries were admitted into Europe — from Kyrgyzstan to Estonia. But Ukraine, russia, and Belarus remained "out of context" — no more than two players from this region per tournament. Everyone started resolving the issue through residency, work, and student visas.
In 2024 the EMEA region appeared, Turkey received separate status as the most developed market in Eurasia. The rest of Europe — from the Atlantic to Kyrgyzstan — one qualification. But Ukraine, russia, and Belarus were again outside the region. Later a central CSA region appeared — from Ukraine to Mongolia, including Nepal and Bangladesh. That's a qualifying nightmare: dozens of countries, different styles, different ping. That's why BOARS Gaming made the strategic decision to compete in Europe. I'm confident that Tencent will understand: Ukraine as a cultivator of players is far above Central Asian countries, and they will either give Ukraine a separate wildcard or integrate it into Western Europe.
BOARS switched to a French roster. How much will that affect the Ukrainian PUBG Mobile scene?
Wolves compete with 3 Ukrainians and 1 Chinese player. Medbuz — 3 Ukrainians and 1 Armenian. There are Moldovan-Ukrainian, Czech-Ukrainian rosters. I want to give a shoutout to Money Makers — they took a historic tag, and I wish the guys success. That's a Czech-Ukrainian roster with many former BOARS and Legacy players. I see a strong future for the region — especially in the context of the Club Open EECA World Cup qualification.
What is the situation with Ukrainian rosters in PUBG Mobile compared to other disciplines?
Compared to CS — worse. Roughly on par with Dota. There's a portion of players who, for the sake of results, join up with russians, justifying it by saying "with them we'll go further." But then they're surprised when they don't get selected for the national team, or when the team's legal entity turns out to be registered in russia.
The boost for the Ukrainian scene will come when Ukrainians consolidate among themselves. Ukrainian players are objectively stronger — they can form powerful rosters and represent Ukraine in international competition.
Is the patriotic spirit in the PUBG Mobile national team noticeably stronger than in other disciplines?
Yes, and that's not just words. I've seen those same guys perform at EWC — where the prize money for participation is comparable to second place at a world championship — and I've seen how they perform for the national team. For the national team they simply lay it all on the line. After a poor result they were afraid to look each other in the eye. The next day they came back out with fire in their gaze.
During my time working with the national team — first and second place in the world, four consecutive European Championship wins. No PUBG Mobile national team has put up results like that. Because every player went out as if it were their last time — in a qualifier game just the same as at a world championship.
For me the national team will always remain the number one team. No motivation is needed there — except one: the Ukrainian flag on the podium and the anthem that only plays for winners.
Where does mobile esports currently stand relative to PC esports?
If you compare shooter to shooter — PUBG Mobile with CS2 — then at the Tier 1 level we're not behind. Average KD in comparable conditions is roughly the same.
If you compare MOBAs — MLBB and LoL, Honor of Kings and Dota — then in Ukraine there's still a lean toward PC, but it's smaller than it seems. At least at the women's level we've already taken top 4 in the world in MLBB at the national team level.
Globally — Honor of Kings in 2025 held its final at a completely packed football stadium in China. PUBG Mobile Global Open in Jakarta — a minimum of 20,000 tickets. For comparison: CS at the O2 Arena in London — 15,000. But it all depends heavily on the country: bring PUBG Mobile or CS to Brazil, India, or Mongolia — attendance will be roughly the same.
Which direction do you think the industry is moving?
Toward consoles. Any last-generation console comfortably outperforms a mobile phone for 5–6 years to come. People who play mobile adapt very quickly to console shooters. Five directions will remain unchanged: CS, Dota, LoL, Valorant, and SimRacing — no controller will replace a steering wheel with pedals and a handbrake. Everything else will gradually move from mobile to consoles.
