Esports

Huawei Free Fire Showdown announced with R185,000 in cash and prizes

19 November 2021 - 13:25
By Wessel Minnie
South African tournament organizer Mettlestate, has partnered with technology giant Huawei Mobile Services.
Image: Supplied South African tournament organizer Mettlestate, has partnered with technology giant Huawei Mobile Services.

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South African tournament organizer Mettlestate, has partnered with technology giant Huawei Mobile Services, to bring gamers a mammoth Garena Free Fire tournament. It is called the Huawei Free Fire Showdown, and according to the announcement made by Mettlestate, it features R185,000 in "cash and prizes". Interested? Sure you are! Let's dive straight into the important details.

Huawei Free Fire Showdown details

First of all, you can head on over to the event's dedicated page at Mettlestate to check it out. Then, you can also register for the Hauwei Free Fire Showdown by heading to the tournament's page.

This is a Quads, battle royale tournament, and registration close this Friday, 19 November 2021 at 19:00 SAST. Therefore, you should get your squad together and register as soon as possible.

A Press Release explains:

"Mettlestate and Huawei are bringing mobile gamers in South Africa an unprecedented Garena Free Fire tournament: the Huawei Free Fire Showdown. Garena Free Fire is one of the most popular mobile battle royale games this year. A battle royale is an online, multiplayer game in which players (teams or individuals) enter an area in a battle that combines ‘last-man-standing’ gameplay and survival and scavenging techniques. Garena Free Fire has over one billion downloads on Android devices alone, and hit a peak of 150 million daily active users."

The Huawei Free Fire Showdown will begin with 3 weeks of group stages on 22 November 2021. The top teams from each group will then face off against each other in the playoffs on 12 December, and the grand finals will take place on 14 December 2021. At the time of writing, an exact prize pool distribution has not been revealed.

Gamers can download Garena Free Fire directly from the HUAWEI AppGallery, for free, of course. The AppGallery app is available on all Android devices, not just for those with a Huawei device.

Qualifier stages format:
  • Each week 72 teams will play, group 1 -3 on Monday and groups 4 - 6 on Wednesday
  • Registrations for the next weeks qualifiers will open every Monday
  • 6 groups of 12 teams play each week 
  • Groups 1 to 3 will play on Mondays from 19:00
  • Groups 4 to 6 will play on Wednesdays from 19:00
  • The top 2 teams from each group each week goes through to the playoff's
  • Registrations then re-open each Monday for the following week's qualifiers if your team did not advance to the playoffs
  • Your team can not re-enter a second week of qualifiers if you have already advanced to the playoffs
  • Teams that did not make it into the playoff's in week 1 can then retry the next week
  • This continues till we reach the end of the qualifiers stage and have our playoff top teams
Playoffs format:
  • Over the course of 3 weeks with 6 lobbies being played each week and the top two teams Qualifying each week we will be left with 36 teams
  • These 36 teams will be split into 3 groups and play 4 matches each 
  • With the top 4 from each group moving forward to the Grand Finals
Grand Finals format:
  • The Grand Finals will be a single lobby made up of 12 teams 
  • They will play 5 Matches, at the end of which we will have our grand victors

Adam Xiao, the Managing Director of Huawei Mobile Services for the MEA region, explains via a Press Release: "Mobile gaming has experienced a surge in popularity over recent years, particularly the battle royale style games. Figures for our App platform, HUAWEI AppGallery, highlight the involvement of our device users and this tournament is giving them more of what they love.

The talent of people playing these type of games is also commendable. Huawei wants to celebrate local excellence in this arena, another reason for this tournament. The partnership between Mettlestate, one of the leading esports companies in Africa, and Huawei, one of the largest mobile companies, is a perfect fit. The plan is for a long-term partnership which
will boost esports across Africa."

Via a Press Release, Mettlestate's community manager, Carly Twaddle, explains: "This competition is paving the way for mobile esports in the gaming community in South Africa. It’s important for big brands like Huawei to show their support for the community. It builds trust, and it shows gamers that they matter and they have the backing of the brands to whom they have dedicated their support."

Those who don't make it through to the playoffs or finals can watch some very exciting Garena Free Fire action live. Tune in on 14 December 2021 via Mettlestate's Twitch channel to catch the finals!

Don’t forget to keep up to date with the latest happenings for Mettlestate tournaments by following them on Twitter, and joining their Discord server.