2021 Avatar World Championship

2021 Avatar World Championship

2021
Tournament information
Sport	Avatar
Location	Bagabiada
Dates	October 2021–November 2021
Administrator(s)	Glace
Tournament format(s)	12 team single round robin 5 team best-of-seven elimination ladder matchups
Venue(s)	Twenties Hall, Bagabiada Arts and Civic Hall
Teams	x
Purse	10,000,000 euclos

The 2021 Avatar World Championship is an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena game Avatar. The Avatar World Championship series is the oldest official still-running tournament for the game (being founded in 2013), the one with the largest prize pool, and widely considered to be the most prestigious, with the most publicity and the highest competitiveness. Being held annually, the 2021 event will be the ninth iteration.

The event will run from October 2021, with a total prize pool of 10 million euclos, the largest in the series' history. This prize pool puts the tournament in the top ten esports events with the largest prize pool. The event is to be hosted in Bagabiada, capital of Bagabiada state in Dezevau, in the Bagabiada Arts and Civic Hall, and in the Twenties Hall. Avatar, created in and originally popular in Dezevau, had its development moved to Kesselbourg in 2012; this is notably the first time the Avatar World Championship will be hosted in Dezevau.

Twelve qualifying teams from around the world will compete, first in a round-robin stage, with the best-performing teams advancing to best-of-seven elimination matchups, until there is a winner. Glace, the developer of Avatar, is the host and organiser of the event. SilverknightS, the champions from 2020, have qualified again.

Hosting

Organisation

Glace, the Kesselbourg-based developer of Avatar, retains full control of the Avatar World Championship series (founded 2013), in matters ranging from competitive integrity to marketing. The company was incorporated in 2012 after the creators of the game decided to leave Dezevau, where the game was created with federal government funding, to become a for-profit business in Kesselbourg. This departure left relations poor between Glace and the Dezevauni government. However, Avatar has continued to be popular in Dezevau, and it is one of the game's strongest regions in terms of competition and popularity. Negotiations on hosting were announced to have borne fruit in 2020; this is the first time that the Avatar World Championship will be hosted in the game's birthplace.

Venue

Bagabiada Arts and Civic Hall

The round robin stage will take place at the Bagabiada Arts and Civic Hall, a multipurpose venue with a capacity of several thousand spectators, depending on its configuration (space needing to be set aside for players, equipment, broadcast staff, etc.) The matchup stage will take place at the Twenties Hall, an indoor events venue with a capacity of 30,000. Spectators will be able to enter both for free. Bagabiada Arts and Civic Hall will be occupied on a full time basis for more than a month, whereas Twenties Hall will only be for more than a week. Reports that Bagabiada Stadium would be used were incorrect; it was quickly passed over as a candidate, because of it being open air, and the weather in Dezevau being hot, humid and often rainy, which might affect foreign competitors (who might otherwise have to have an air-conditioned room built within the venue) and equipment. Twenties Hall is located substantially underneath Bagabiada Stadium, though, and major events will not be held at Bagabiada Stadium while the Avatar World Championship is ongoing.

Participants

The following teams qualified to play in the 2021 Avatar World Championship, according to the regional league-based criteria of Glace; there is at least one representative from every regional league. Notably, SilverknightS, the 2020 champions, have qualified again to defend their title.

Team	Qualification	Players					Coach
		Top laner	Top roamer	Mid laner	Bot roamer	Bot laner
Arucian Angels	Asteria Inferior 2021 Champions	tourdeforce (Raymond Delacroix)	t0by (Toby Williams)	MeatMachine (Ethan Hudson)	RadicalLouis (Louis Lejeune)	mutiler244 (Camille Leroy)	Bart Derasmo
Team HAZE	Asteria Superior 2021 Champions	Cobrag (Cody Bragg)	Conquerogue65 (Pat Lucroy)	Hedgehogger (Tom Matthews)	Bandito89 (Diego Nunez)	PaperPatriot (Dylan McCain)	N.A.
Octagamers	Asteria Superior 2021 Runners-up	Zebrass (Fred Good)	Dismage (Remi Rigal)	DeathDrummer8 (Conner Hansen)	Hypogre (Jules Delafose)	1GlassFlash (Liam Lawrence)	N.A.
Mtel Lion City	Bahia 2021 Champions	Kumkani (Cebo Joyi)	WaWa (Anasa Schmitd)	XtaZ (Lifa Jadezweni)	Chananga (Lewis Goli)	J1 (Jean Maqoma)	Jezaga Zemhinou
Frigatebirds	Brown Sea 2021 Champions	uwu_Dingbat (Bio Juidange)	bijemene (Jazengi Vidimhe)	oignon (Mamhe Nhidomou)	bIZARRE (Gevuine Demaniani)	Jean (Zono Mhudhu)	Zabedai Mhudhu
New Begia Dockers	Brown Sea 2021 Runners-up	Deponent	Jelly	Gemuidane	2468	Bedhu	Debi (Debi Zugaumo)
CECA Equip	Central Euclea 2021 Champions	Ucs Berzi	Cristòfor Amell	Roger Descamps	Alessandre Flequer	Eliseu Depònt	N.A.
SilverknightS	East Euclea 2021 Champions	SilverPaladin	ArkleeD	Mr.EAGLE	ShielDCitadeL	Levikushi	Zamarba
"Les Amateurs" Équipe de Sport-Cyber de Rouanet	East Euclea 2021 Runners-up	XaverGamer (Xavier Boutroux)	FlameBlaise (Sylviane Blaise)	SerChl03 (Ingrid Bouchard)	JPLGaming (Jean-Paul Laurens)	xX_Stunzeed_Xx (Antoine Gérin)	N.A.
Moriyama Zensenryuu Austral Foxes	Senria 2021 Champions	suran997 (Keisuke Togawa)	RaivalrY (Raizo Yasunaga)	AdmiralSat0 (Iehiro Satou)	keisi_razoumon (Yosirou Kimura)	kitanoya-x67 (Hidesi Busuzima)	N.A.
Team Ace	West Euclea 2021 Champions	vasilthegreat (Vasil Vasilov)	Lucky (Martin Gájda)	konk (Konstantin Kulik)	rougelectrique (Valerii Dultsev)	P3rcy (Anton Marenko)	Bartoš Nivica
S5 Gaming	West Euclea 2021 Runnners-up	kl1ment (Kliment Smeshnoy)	delphi (Villiam Järvenpää)	Sagacité (Dragomir Lenov)	jan66 (Janusz Rumiński)	niangi2 (Mikhel Saakashvili)	Cheslav Ungern

Round robin

All qualifying teams play all other teams once.

Matchups

The top five teams from the round robin stage play best-of-sevens, with the losers being instantly eliminated.

Results

By team

Place	Region	Team	Round robin	Tiebreakers	Eighths	Quarters	Semis	Finals	Prize (%)	Prize (Euclos)
1st									25%	€2,500,000
2nd									17.5%	€1,750,000
3rd									13.75%	€1,375,000
4th	West Euclea	S5 Gaming	7-4	2-4	4-2	3-4			10%	€1,000,000
5th	Asteria Superior	Team HAZE	7-4	0-2	2-4				7.5%	€750,000
6th	Asteria Superior	Octagamers	6-5	1-1					6.25%	€625,000
	Central Euclea	CECA Equip	6-5	0-2
8th	East Euclea	SilverknightS	5-6						3.75%	€375,000
	East Euclea	Les Amateurs	5-6
10th	Brown Sea	Frigatebirds	4-7						2.5%	€250,000
	Senria	Moriyama Zensenryuu Austral Foxes	4-7
12th	Brown Sea	New Begia Dockers	0-11

Note that 101.25% of the announced 10 million euclo was disbursed, because 7th place would have received only 5% of the prize pool, but in the event of the tie for 6th place, Glace chose to provide both of them with the originally intended 6th place cash prize.

Media

The 2021 Avatar World Championship will be streamed live for the general public, as well as recorded and uploaded to the internet. Official broadcasts are made in languages including Gaullican, Estmerish, Ziba, Shangean, Senrian, Vespasian, Soravian and Weranian; casters and other staff from regional leagues are brought in to create these different broadcasts. The gameplay footage, interviews, music and ceremonies are generally the same, but different streams may differ in terms of the commentary, analysis and other content (giveaways, off-topic discussion and games).

Glace maintains all relevant intellectual property rights in the broadcast; it does not allow reproduction of the live broadcast, but does allow private recordings to be uploaded after the fact. This is part of its media strategy, seeking to generate publicity not only before, but also after the event, to maximise the effect of advertisement both for sponsors and for the game itself.

Official sponsors of the event include the Dezevauni Tourism Service, x, y and z. There has been controversy about some of them.