Free Fire maker Garena and the Esports World Cup Foundation recently announced that the popular battle royale game will take part in the inaugural Esports World Cup event taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July. Free Fire is one of the most downloaded mobile battle royale games in the world on mobile devices.Â
A replacement for the Saudi Arabian government-backed gaming and esports festival Gamers8, the multi-week event will showcase a number of esports titles including Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2, Honor of Kings, and StarCraft II, among others.Â
Esports World Cup: Free Fire will take place July 10 -14, and will feature 18 teams competing for a part of a $1M USD prize pool. The event will feature five regional teams as well as competitors coming out of ESL’s Free Fire Snapdragon Pro Series. These teams will compete in the Knock-out Stage for the first three days, before the best 12 teams will proceed to the Finals over the next two days. The winner of the tournament will get the biggest chunk of the overall prize pool and secure a slot to compete in Free Fire’s largest tournament of the year, the Free Fire World Series Global Finals 2024 Brazil in November.
The qualification stage for the Esports World Cup: Free Fire will begin at Free Fire MEA Championship (FFMC) 2024, which will serve as a semi-professional online event open to all players and teams from the region. Taking place twice a year, the FFMC 2024 Spring season began on Feb. 17, and runs until March 9, followed by the FFMC 2024 Summer in the second half of the year.
The winner of FFMC 2024 Spring—along with the other teams in the top six spots—will advance to the Free Fire MEA Mid-Season Clash (FF-MSC) 2024 from April 9 – May 11. That event will feature two stages, with competitors taking on the 12 teams from last year’s Free Fire MEA League (FFML) Season 7 for part of a $10K prize pool. In addition to securing the cash prize, the winner of FF-MSC 2024 will also earn a spot in the Esports World Cup: Free Fire. Â
The Esports World Cup is operated by the Saudi Arabian government and the Saudi Esports Federation. Also involved is Savvy Games Group, a gaming and esports company owned and operated by the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. Savvy owns a number of esports-related operations including ESL FACEIT Group, which is composed of tournament organizer ESL, tournament platform FACEIT, esports production company Esports Engine, and esports and gaming analytics firm Vindex. Savvy also has a major investment in Chinese esports tournament operator VSPO.