Garena launched Free Fire back in 2017. Since then, the battle royale has become super popular, with 150 million peak daily active users and 1 billion downloads on Google Play Store. This success can partly be attributed to its excellent esports ecosystem.
The Free Fire World Series Singapore finale in May had more than 5.4 million peak concurrent viewers. Fans were eagerly waiting for the next edition of FFWS, scheduled for November. However, their hope was dashed, with the Free Fire World Series' sudden cancellation. In this article, we are going to list out everything you need to know about this decision from Garena.
Free Fire World Series Cancelled due to COVID 19
Garena has just officially confirmed that the rumored Free Fire World Series Mexico this year has been canceled. According to their statements, the new Delta variant of the coronavirus is rising worldwide, with several countries dealing with a very high number of cases. Most of those countries have Free Fire players, and getting people out for an international esports tournament is really hard.
Looks like Garena doesn't want the same thing that happened to South Asian teams back in FFWS Singapore in May to happen again in November. Back then, South Asian teams were barred from entering Singapore due to the outbreak of a new COVID-19 variant. The list includes Team Elite and Galaxy Racer from India, Team TG from Pakistan and Team Riot from Bangladesh.
2 - About Free Fire World Series 2021 and its replacement
The first Free Fire World Series champion was Team Phoenix from Thailand. They dominated the finals and took home 500k USD in prize money. Despite being unable to participate, all 4 teams from South Asia were awarded the prize money regardless. In spite of the exclusion of their home team, the Hindi language stream peaked at 1.6 million viewers.
Overall, the cancellation of FFWS 2021's 2nd phase hits the Free Fire Esports Scene hard, as the coveted tournament featured a massive prize pool of $2 million. This is the 2nd year in a row that the Free Fire World Championship was unable to be held. It is likely that Garena would organize something at a smaller scale, similar to the Continental Series last year.
If this happens, Indian teams should still be able to participate in tournaments. In last year's Free Fire Continental Series 2020: Asia, India's two representatives XTZ Esports and Critical X Elite were defeated soundly. They placed 15th and 18th respectively and didn't earn any prize money. Indian teams have become much stronger now and if this tournament happens again, they would be ready.
Interested in more of our articles related to Garena Free Fire? Please check out this post to find out more about Free Fire 4th Anniversary Clash Squad Cup 2021: How To Participate, Rules, Rewards
Comments