Months ago I introduced the concept of PUG matches to the Sins community and I'm pleased to say that it's really taken off and enhanced the online multiplayer game.  Earlier I had difficulty explaining the origin of the term to people, but I think I can provide a better explanation now, one that adds more meanting to the term "PUG match".

I first discovered PUG matches back in 2003 when I became a member of the Unreal Tournament (1999) Capture-the-Flag clan community.  (For those who don't know, UT99 is the greatest online multiplayer first-person shooter game of all time.)  As far as I know, the term (in an online game context) originated from this community or at least from early first-person shooter gaming communites that used Internet Relay Chat rooms (IRC).

PUG stands for (P)ick(U)p (G)ame.  In Sins the difference between a PUG match or even a clan match and a regular Sins team game isn't really all that great--the maps are about the same (random single star) with the only real difference being the skill and balance of players on the team. 

However, for online multiplayer FPS there is a huge difference between playing on a chaotic public server and playing in an organized clan match.  On a public server, often with up to 16 or 20 players, people come and go during the course of a single map and there aren't any assigned positions (ie, offense, defense, middle, cherry-picker offense, front door defense, etc.)  So, consequently, organized 5-on-5 clan matches were radically different since people had assigned positions and used voice comm and played on competitive-grade custom maps.  Clan matches, of course, are scheduled to be played at certain times and the teams are only composed of players in the two opposing clans.

But what if you wanted to play a game that felt like a clan match but without being in a clan or without actually playing a clan match at a scheduled time?  What if you just wanted to play a game that felt like a clan match but that didn't count for anything?  You could play a (P)ick(U)p clan-match-like (G)ame with other members of the clan and pro community -- no schedules, no fixed clan teams, just sign up and play.  Two people become team captains and pick the other eight players.  So, you'd get to play 5-on-5 with voice comm and assigned positions on clan-match-grade (aka "league" or "ladder") maps.  For the original Unreal Tournament, people still organize capture-the-flag PUG matches to this day.  You could argue that games on the public servers are technically pickup games too, but in the context of the meaning of the word as we use it in the FPS community, it really refers to (P)ick(U)p clan-match (G)ames amongst clanners, pro players, and others who take the game seriously enough to know what a PUG is and where to find it and to appreciate that it's a higher quality game than playing on the public servers.

I hope the meaning of the term makes a little more sense now.