PUBG is resetting its leaderboards early, play will be unranked for now

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has made the unusual decision to reset its leaderboards early, prior to announcing the start of the game’s next competitive season. According to a Tweet sent early this morning, Battlegrounds’ leaderboard will be reset today at 6 p.m. PT. That gives players just a few more hours to gain ranks before the season is over.

The last time that the leaderboard was reset was at the end of January. Prior to that it was also reset when the game emerged from Early Access.

The decision comes amidst a flurry of criticism from fans that cheating is on the rise. Numbers from the BattleEye service that handles some of the game’s anti-cheat functions indicate that more than 2.5 million accounts have been banned through January. At that rate, that could mean more than 4 million players banned through February, which would be more than 13 percent of the game’s player base.

Just last week the developers at PUBG Corp. admitted that combating cheaters had slowed progress on improving the game. “Development of some of the major features and systems was delayed as our focus shifted towards tightening our anti-cheat effort,” PUBG Corp. said in the game’s official forums on Steam.

PUBG Corp. has not set a start date for the next season, but promises it will soon.