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.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
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,[7] which Ibai tweeted with the caption "I want to buy the rights to this and set up a World Cup."[8] 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.[9]
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.[10]
Matches would last for 2 minutes, except for the final, which would last 5 minutes.
Players had to touch the balloon with their hands, launching it upwards.
Players could only touch the balloon once before their opponent touched it.
A player is 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.
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.[citation needed]
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.[9][10] The tournament was broadcast live in its entirety on Llanos's Twitch channel,[9] and culminated with Peruvian Francesco de la Cruz defeating German Jan Spiess in the final.[11][12]
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.[17][18]
2021 World Cup champion Francesco de la Cruz was announced as a participant during the Spanish qualifier.[19] In September 2022, national qualifiers for multiple Latin American countries were announced as well.[20]
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.[19][21]
National qualifiers for Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia were held concurrently in Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 17 and 18 September 2022.[22]
Algeria
Andorra
Argentina
Armenia
Bolivia
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cuba
Equatorial Guinea
France
Georgia
Germany
Italy
Mexico
Mongolia
Morocco
Netherlands
Paraguay
Peru
Portugal
Russia
Senegal
Spain
Sweden
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Venezuela
Canada
Turkey