The Balloon World Cup is an event organized by Spanish celebrities Ibai Llanos and Gerard Piqué, based on a viral balloon keep-up game on social media.
Background Ibai was inspired to organize the tournament by a video of American siblings Antonio, Diego and Isabel Arredondo playing a game of keep-up with a balloon in their Canby, Oregon home, which Ibai tweeted with the caption "I want to buy the rights to this and set up a World Cup." Antonio and Diego attended the tournament in Spain to represent the United States, but Diego was eliminated early after a first-round loss to Cuba's Eric Guzmán González.
Staff Llanos enlisted several panelists of Spanish sports talk show El chiringuito de Jugones for the event's staff, including former La Liga assistant referee Rafa Guerrero as one of the referees for the tournament's matches, and Alfredo Duro, Jorge D'Alessandro and Ander Cortés as commentators. Person Role Ibai Llanos Announcing team Gerard Piqué Alfredo Duro Jorge D'Alessandro Ander Cortés Rafa Guerrero Referees Franc Tormo Xavi Sánchez Nacho Tellado Assistant referee Cristóbal Soria Delegate
In 2022: Person Role Ibai Llanos Announcers José Riobó Ander Cortés Suzyroxx Pre-show interviewers Sekiam Rafa Guerrero Referees Sandra Adell Franc Tormo Nacho Tellado Assistant referee
Competition rules
Matches last for 2 minutes, except for the final, which lasts 5 minutes. Players touch the balloon with their hands, launching it upwards. Players can only touch the balloon once before their opponent touch it. Players are awarded a point when their opponent fails to touch the balloon before it hits the ground. The player who has scored the most points when time runs out wins the match. If the two players are tied when time runs out, they go to an overtime where they must use their head and feet instead of the hands to touch the balloon; the first player to score a point wins the match.
Format In spite of the championship having initially been announced as a 24-country tournament with a group stage that would ensure every participant played at least two matches, this was abandoned when the field was expanded to 32 participants, opting instead for a single knockout tournament. All matches were played inside a glass cage that contained a number of pieces of furniture acting as obstacles, and simulating the home environment in which the keep-up game is usually played.
2021
The 2021 Balloon World Cup is the first edition of the event. It was held on 14 October 2021, at the convention center in the PortAventura World resort in the province of Tarragona. The tournament was broadcast live in its entirety on Llanos's Twitch channel, and culminated with Peruvian Francesco de la Cruz defeating German Jan Spiess in the final.
After Francesco de la Cruz won the tournament, he was congratulated on social media by President of Peru Pedro Castillo.
Competitors All of the competitors were announced as the representatives of their country. Competitor Country Walid Seddiki Ramon Cierco Elián Barrado Gor Khechoyan Israel Quispe Diego Mendez Tsetevan Mladenov Felipe Pávez Funtxi Ursua Zhang Tarik Eric Guzmán González Matías Boho Pol Jorquera Tamaz Tsagareishvili Jan Spiess Momo Benavides Luis "Pollo" Forzan Gerelt-Od Tserennorov Yahya El Hajouji Javi Damas Raúl Eduardo Giménez Francesco de la Cruz Ricardo Ferreira Yana Rudenko Pape Ndour Jan Franquesa Nicklas Hallback Andrii Mostavchuk Moses Duckrell Diego Arredondo Isaac "Suko" Leal Raúl David Carrero
Replaced competitors Name Country Reason for replacement Substitute Marco Fiorillo Tested positive for COVID-19 prior to the event Gerónimo "Momo" Benavides
Tournament bracket
Awards and nominations Year Ceremony Category Result 2021 ESLAND Awards Best Event of the Year The Streamer Awards Best Streamed Event
2022
The 2022 Balloon World Cup is the second edition of the Balloon World Cup, a sporting event organized by Ibai Llanos and Gerard Piqué, based on a game of keep-up with a balloon that went viral on social media. This was the first edition for which national qualifying tournaments were held.
The tournament was held on 27 October 2022, at the PortAventura Convention Centre in Vila-seca, Tarragona, the same venue that had hosted the first World Cup the year prior. The number of entering countries was reduced from 32 to 16, with defending champion Francesco de la Cruz being the only returning player. Spain's Miguel Imbroda was crowned world champion defeating Brazil's Claudio Lassance in the final.
Participants 2021 World Cup champion Francesco de la Cruz was announced as a participant during the Spanish qualifier. In September 2022, national qualifiers for multiple Latin American countries were announced as well. Competitor Country Lautaro Maqueda Claudio Lassance Monte Doebel-Hickok Gabriela Amaro Salazar Jorge Alba Ortiz Clément Dumais Vanessa Klein Joseph Romano Gerardo Nocedal Dion de Brouwer Francesco de la Cruz Gustavo Cardoso Miguel Imbroda Ogeday Girișken Thomas Hughes Keem Kim
National qualifiers Spain The Spanish national qualifier was held on 3 July 2022 at Fira de Barcelona in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, as part of the third and final day of the 2022 U-Beat Live Fest. Jan Franquesa, who won the bronze medal for Spain at the 2021 World Cup, took part in the tournament, but was eliminated in the first round.
Chile National qualifiers for Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia were held concurrently in Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 17 and 18 September 2022.
Argentina
Colombia
Mexico
Brazil
United States National qualifiers for the United States and Canada took place on 7 October 2022 as part of the first day of the TwitchCon event in San Diego, California, United States.
Canada
Tournament bracket The draw to determine the first-round matchups and the tournament bracket was held on 26 October 2022.
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