2021 Avatar World Championship

2021 Avatar World Championship

2021
Tournament information
Sport	Avatar
Location	Bagabiada
Dates	October 2021–2021
Administrator(s)	Glace
Tournament format(s)	x team triple round robin x team best-of-seven elimination 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.

x 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. WhiteknightS, the champion 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,

Team	Qualification	Players					Coach
		Top laner	Top roamer	Mid laner	Bot roamer	Bot laner
Frigatebirds	Brown Sea 2021 Runners-up	Dingbat (Bio Juidange)	bijemene (Jazengi Vidimhe)	oignon (Mamhe Nhidomou)	Jean (Zono Mhudhu)	bIZARRE (Gevuine Demaniani)
							Zabedai Mhudhu

Round robin

All qualifying teams play all other teams x number of times.

Matchups

The top eight(?) teams play best-of-sevens, with the losers being instantly eliminated.

Bracket

	Quarterfinals				Semifinals				Finals
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Results

By team

Place	Region	Team	Round robin	Matchups	Quarters	Semis	Finals	Prize (%)	Prize (Euclos)
1st								20%	€2,000,000
2nd								10%	€1,000,000
3rd–4th								5%	€500,000
5th–8th								2.5%	€250,000

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.