Free Fire Esports 2024 Roadmap: FFWS and new mid-year global tournament
Garena has revealed the anticipated Free Fire Esports 2024 roadmap. The major changes include the rebranding of all local leagues to the Free Fire World Series (FFWS) branding and the introduction of a new mid-year global tournament. The roadmap covers esports tournaments in all the major regions for the game including Brazil, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, and Pakistan.
Image Credits: Garena
Free Fire Esports 2024 Roadmap: FFWS to headline the year
Garena had already announced that it will be rebranding local leagues to the FFWS brand. Now, the schedule for these has been announced. While the FFWS MEA 2024 only features one season, there will be two seasons each in the FFWS Brazil, SEA, and LATAM Leagues.
Image Credits: Garena
These will culminate in the FFWS Global Finals, taking place in November 2024 as a LAN event. Additionally, Free Fire could be bringing some additional esports tournaments for different regions such as Pakistan, a country that will have a slot at the mid-year global tournament.
Garena hasn’t revealed the prize pools for any tournaments yet. This could be a bad sign as Garena has been reducing the overall prize money in Free Fire esports over the past few years. The phenomenon isn’t a surprise, though, as Free Fire esports viewership has been falling over the past few years. Thus, 2024 is a crucial year for the sustenance of Free Fire esports and this roadmap is a step in that direction.
Mid-year global tournament unveiled: Will it take place at the Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia?
Image Credits: Esports World Cup Foundation
In the press release for the Free Fire Esports 2024 roadmap, Garena explicitly doesn’t state that it will be organizing the mid-year global tournament. Instead, the developer says that “the mobile battle royale will participate in a mid-year global tournament in July.”
This indicates that Free Fire will be a part of another global esports tournament in July. All fingers point to the Esports World Cup, the rebranded version of the Gamers8, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Esports World Cup Foundation has said that the tournament will include the most popular games in the world and have the largest prize pool in esports history. It seems that Free Fire will now also be a part of this tournament.
Garena has said that the mid-year global tournament will feature 18 teams from the FFWS Sea Spring, FFWS Brazil, FFWS LATAM, and also teams from MEA and Pakistan. Additionally, the winner of this tournament will earn a direct slot in the FFWS Global Finals 2024, increasing the stakes in the tournament.
Free Fire India release still a question
Garena had initially stated that Free Fire would be coming back with a localized version in India on Sept. 5, 2023. The company later announced, however, that the release of the game would be delayed by a few weeks.
It has now been more than five months and the game still hasn’t been released, putting a question mark on the future of Free Fire India. Garena had already revealed ambitious plans for the game in the country including esports plans and also onboarded cricketing legend MS Dhoni as the brand ambassador.
Image Credits: Garena
Additionally, Free Fire India’s release comes at a crucial time when the game faces lowered interest in esports globally. The South Asian country has been a big market for the battle royale title since the beginning and a return to the country could be the boost that the global esports scene needs.
The Free Fire esports 2024 roadmap also makes no mention of India, or if an Indian team will earn a slot in global tournaments. Additionally, Garena has made no mention on what is causing this unprecedented delay. Fans from the country will be hoping that the game releases soon, though.
