Arena of Valor International Championship 2021: Teams, format, and schedule revealed 

The fifth iteration of the Arena of Valor: International Championship is all set to start. The championship includes 14 of the best teams from the eight regions competing for a massive prize pool of USD 1 Million.

The tournament will be held as an online affair and is being organized by two of the biggest names in the gaming industry, Garena and Tencent. The prize pool for the tournament has been doubled from that of the previous year.

Arena of Valor International Championship 2021 regions

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Format and schedule for Arena of Valor: International Championship 2021

The tournament will start from the 27 November 2021 and will go on for almost a month, eventually culminating with the Grand Finals on 19 December 2021. The competition has been divided into two stages, the Group Stage and Knockout Stage.

Group Stage: 27 November 2021 to 5 December 2021

In the Group Stage, the competing 14 teams have been equally divided into two groups A and B. The teams will battle in a single round-robin format with each game being played as a best-of-two.

Following the completion of the Group Stage, the top four teams from each group will qualify for the knockout round. On the flipside, the bottom 3 from both groups will be eliminated from the competition.

Arena of Valor International Championship 2021 Groups( Image via AOV Garena YouTube)

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Knockout Round: 9 December 2021 to 19 December 2021

In the knockout round, the eight qualified teams will face off in a double-elimination bracket. The quarter-finals will be held in a best-of-five format while in the semi-finals and grand finals, the best-of-seven format will be used to determine the winner.

Arena of Valor International Championship 2021 Knockout stage Format ( Image via AOV Garena YouTube)

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Qualified and invited teams for Arena of Valor: International Championship 2021

Out of the 14 teams competing, 12 have qualified from their respective regional tournaments while two sides have been invited from Korea and China.

Qualified teams from Thailand

1) dtac Talon Esports (Winners, RPL Winter)

2) Valencia CF Esports (Runner Ups, RPL Winter)

3) Buriram United Esports (Winners, Road to AIC)

Qualified teams from GCS Summer Chinese Taipei

4) ONE Team (Winners)

5) Hong Kong Attitude (Runner-Ups)

6) MAD Team (Third Place)

Qualified teams from AOG Winter Vietnam

7 ) Saigon Phantom (Winners)

8) V Gaming (Runner-Ups)

9) Team Flash (Third Place)

Qualified team from MSP Qualifier (Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines)

10) Unde Rank Gaming (Winners)

Qualified team from Japan Qualifier

11) X-eSports (Winners)

Qualified team from ASL Winter Indonesia

12) ArchAngel

Invited teams

13) All Gamers (China)

14) Team Olympus (South Korea)

It would be intriguing to see which team comes out on top after the dust settles. MAD Team, from Chinese Taipei and the winners of Arena of Valor International Championship 2020, will be looking to defend their title