It sounds like there’s going to be no offline final this time around, however
Update: Registration is now officially open for the Intel World Open qualifier tournaments, but you can’t procrastinate for too long considering sign-ups are only available for two weeks. You can see the exclusive Street Fighter 5 content you’ll receive for competing in the story below.
With the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo Japan, the Intel World open was forced to do the same, leading many to wonder if the worldwide eSports event would still be taking place this year, but it looks like they’re going to continue on with the event will continue on after all.
Intel announced today that the IWO will indeed be taking place this summer with Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition and Rocket League remaining as its featured games that have a combined prize pool of $500,000.
The world-spanning competition will kick off at the start of June with 26 different regions duking it out in multiple open qualifier brackets followed by closed qualifiers and regional finals leading into the start of the Olympics.
Instead of national / regional teams battling for the right to be crowned best on the planet in an offline setting as originally planned, finals will all be held online as well split up amongst 11 regions to earn the prize money.
Each finals region will have access to a total pool of $22,500 and first place prize of $7,500 except for Japan and South Korea which will feature $25,000 and $8,000 prizes respectively.
The top two to four players from each open qualifier will move onto the closed qualifier round, and seemingly the top eight from there will have a spot at regional finals.
Interestingly, no mention is made in the official rule book to Street Fighter 5’s online Tournament Mode, which was being developed at least in part specifically for the Intel World Open.
Registration starts May 15th for the #IntelWorldOpen. Prize pool for #StreetFighterV is $250,000! Anyone can participate for free!
Login to your SFV account during the registration period to receive an in-game reward!
For info visit https://t.co/BV17Quc36O #SFV #SFVCE #IWO pic.twitter.com/Fm7aZ5mBCf
— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) May 14, 2021
After conducting multiple beta tests for the tournament mode, Capcom went silent about the feature’s release for over a year now, and it seems like the IWO may continue to just use the basic Battle Lounge setup of other tournaments.
Registration is scheduled to open on May 15 with the only major stipulation needed to sign up for SF5 being players need to be at least 16 years old to compete.
Open qualifiers will run for pretty much two weeks straight beginning on June 1.
Closed qualifiers begin on June 29 and run through July 4 while the regional finals will take place July 16–21, 2021.
Though Intel is partnered with the International Olympic Committee, IWO competitors will not be receiving Olympic medals like the official sports events though that prize money is certainly a nice incentive.
More information on registration for the Intel World Open can be found on their official website, and the full rule book for Street Fighter 5’s tournaments can be viewed here.
