The Intel World Open was announced in 2019 as an esports event officially partnered with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Featuring Street Fighter V and Rocket League, Intel aims to highlight players of these two games on a global scale. While the event was postponed alongside the Olympics, online qualifiers finally began in June 2021.
The Intel World Open is currently in the closed qualifiers stage. Source: ESL Gaming
The structure of the event includes four stages. First, registration opened for all regions on May 15. There are 26 regions involved in the Intel World Open, listed on the official Olympics page for the event. Open Qualifier tournaments occurred online from June 1 to June 13. Following this stage, players who won these events will now compete from June 29 to July 4 in closed qualifier brackets.
Finally, the best players to emerge from the closed qualifiers will compete in a regional finals stage from July 16 to July 21. The regional finals include 11 separate events and features a prize pool of $250,000.
As a global event, the Intel World Open features familiar faces and hopeful newcomers to the Street Fighter V scene. Despite not being connected to the Capcom Pro Tour or Street Fighter League, many big names like iDom, Xiaohai and MenaRD are already securing spots in the regional finals.
Tracksuit outfits for the SFV roster. Source: Capcom
Back in 2019, every SFV character received a similar tracksuit outfit to coincide with the Olympics. Since then, all recently-released characters were also given the special uniform. This tracksuit is required by players competing in the event in order to keep the spirit and competitive integrity of the Olympics. Since certain stages and costumes have been banned within the Capcom Pro Tour, these tracksuits offer a festive and easy way to Intel to manage this concern for the event.
The Intel World Open is being broadcast live throughout the qualifiers and finals stages at ESL’s Twitch page. ESL Street Fighter also has regular updates about the event on their Twitter at @ESLSF. While the main stream occurs, some players have also chosen to stream their perspectives during the tournaments.
Despite the online-only format, ESL has provided in-person and remote commentary for the event featuring numerous community members like Ryan Hart and Saint Cola. Following over a year of Capcom Pro Tour Online competition, these broadcasts aim to make the most of the online environment which players have been confined to.
Intel World Open’s prize money distribution. Source: Intel
The event’s prize money rivals that of Capcom Pro Tour events, with $250,000 to distribute between Intel World Open champions. However, numerous tournaments means this money will be evenly split between players in different regions, compared to the top 8 distribution format of a single event like the Capcom Cup.
Fighting game tournament prize pools have steadily grown over the course of the past few years. As an event with official ties to the Olympics, Intel’s large investment into this competition continues that trend. Motivating players to fight for the gold with such a large prize pool on the line, this Olympics-level event will certainly highlight the best of the best in Street Fighter V.
Featured image courtesy of Intel
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