Buriram United won sunday’s Arena of Valor International Championship (AIC) 2021 tournament, lifting the trophy and taking home its $400,000 grand prize.

At the world championships, which began in late November, 14 teams from eight regions fought hard to win the tournament. The fifth AIC tournament this year featured a total prize pool of $1 million, more than double the prize last year. The tournament was held online so that players could play and enjoy it safely in the highly anticipated MOBA esports challenges.

Thanks to the success of AIC 2021, organisers Level Infinite and broadcaster Garena announced today that they have made extensive worldwide esports plans for Arena of Valor (AoV) in 2022. Starting next year, the global esports structure will focus on upgrading all tiers from amateur tournaments to the AoV International Championship (AIC) and AoV World Cup (AWC), the pinnacle of professional competition.

“It has been our biggest win to see the strong support of our fans and the growing passions of our players over the past years. We are very excited to increase the size of the competition for AoV in 2022. More teams will be invited to professional leagues, and the prize pool will be increased in selected regions. We hope these will be encouraging steps for teams to target the highest.”

Pro leagues start in January and run until May. It will start with the RoV Pro League (RPL) at the end of January and continue with Arena of Glory (AOG), Garena Challenger Series (GCS) and AoV Star League (ASL) in February. The winners will take their place at AIC 2022, while the professional leagues will enter their second season from July to September, and the teams will continue to fight for their place in AWC 2022.

In 2022, Garena will implement the new annual points system to help local teams in various regions navigate their paths to AWC 2022. The system will see the points teams collect to qualify for major tournaments throughout the year and evaluate them based on their consistent performance throughout the year.

Bernd Gottsmann, President of Tencent Games Global’s Global Esports Centre, said, “We look forward to embarking on the journey of the 2022 competitive season, which is set to be the best in arena of Valor history. I hope you enjoyed AIC as much as we did. I also congratulate the new champion Buriram United team – GGWP”.
Next year’s AoV International Championship will be held in June 2022 with more teams and more regions participating in the battles.

The prize pool was also impressively doubled to $2 million to demonstrate the organizers’ commitment to improving the esports scene.

At the end of the competitive calendar, the AoV World Cup will be held in October, and 16 teams will compete hard for a share of the $10 million prize pool, a record for all mobile esports tournaments in the world. Each of the 16 teams competing against each other to win the title will receive a minimum of $250,000, while the eventual winner will receive $3,500,000.

New regions such as Europe, North and South America, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa will host regional and other semi-professional tournaments awaiting enthusiastic competitors, as well as city and campus tournaments. The new regional leagues will be part of allowing players to shine on the esports scene.

Arena of Valor is playable in 16 languages in 173 countries and territories. It is in the top five on the download lists of 18 countries and regions and is in the top 10 highest incomes of the region with 28 countries. In addition to being the best mobile game in various Asian countries and regions where mobile is more predominant, it has a penetration rate of 60 percent in the local population of these markets.

You can download Arena of Valor: New Age for free here.

press release