# 2021 Balloon World Cup

The 2021 Balloon World Cup is the first 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. 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.

## 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 | Announcing team |
| Alfredo Duro | Announcing team |
| Jorge D'Alessandro | Announcing team |
| Ander Cortés | Announcing team |
| Rafa Guerrero | Referees |
| Franc Tormo | Referees |
| Xavi Sánchez | Referees |
| Nacho Tellado | Assistant referee |
| Cristóbal Soria | Delegate |

## Competition rules

* 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.

## 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.

## List of competitors

All of the competitors were announced as the representatives of their country.
| Competitor | Country |
| Walid Seddiki | Algeria |
| Ramon Cierco | Andorra |
| Elián Barrado | Argentina |
| Gor Khechoyan | Armenia |
| Israel Quispe | Bolivia |
| Diego Mendez | Brazil |
| Tsetevan Mladenov | Bulgaria |
| Felipe Pávez | Chile |
| Funtxi Ursua Zhang | China |
| Tarik | Colombia |
| Eric Guzmán González | Cuba |
| Matías Boho | Equatorial Guinea |
| Pol Jorquera | France |
| Tamaz Tsagareishvili | Georgia |
| Jan Spiess | Germany |
| Momo Benavides | Italy |
| Luis "Pollo" Forzan | Mexico |
| Gerelt-Od Tserennorov | Mongolia |
| Yahya El Hajouji | Morocco |
| Javi Damas | Netherlands |
| Raúl Eduardo Giménez | Paraguay |
| Francesco de la Cruz | Peru |
| Ricardo Ferreira | Portugal |
| Yana Rudenko | Russia |
| Pape Ndour | Senegal |
| Jan Franquesa | Spain |
| Nicklas Hallback | Sweden |
| Andrii Mostavchuk | Ukraine |
| Moses Duckrell | United Kingdom |
| Diego Arredondo | United States |
| Isaac "Suko" Leal | Uruguay |
| Raúl David Carrero | Venezuela |

### Replaced competitors

| Name | Country | Reason for replacement | Substitute |
| Marco Fiorillo | Italy | Tested positive for COVID-19 prior to the event | Gerónimo "Momo" Benavides |

## Tournament bracket

| Round of 32 | Round of 32 | Round of 16 | Round of 16 | Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final |
| Francesco de la Cruz | 6 | | | | | | | | |
| Tsetevan Mladenov | 4 | Francesco de la Cruz | 3 | | | | | | |
| Gerelt-Od Tserennorov | 3 | Gerelt-Od Tserennorov | 2 | | | | | | |
| Luis "Pollo" Forzan | 1 | | | Francesco de la Cruz | 2 | | | | |
| Tamaz Tsagareishvili | 3 | | | Elián Barrado | 1 | | | | |
| Raúl Eduardo Giménez | 2 | Tamaz Tsagareishvili | 1 | | | | | | |
| Walid Seddiki | 2 | Elián Barrado | 4 | | | | | | |
| Elián Barrado | 5 | | | | | Francesco de la Cruz | 2 | | |
| Nicklas Hallback | 4 | | | | | Jan Franquesa | 1 | | |
| Yahya El Hajouji | 6 | Yahya El Hajouji | 6 | | | | | | |
| Momo Benavides | 2 | Momo Benavides | 4 | | | | | | |
| Funtxi Ursua Zhang | 1 | | | Yahya El Hajouji | 2 | | | | |
| Diego Arredondo | 2 | | | Jan Franquesa | 4 | | | | |
| Eric Guzmán González | 4 | Eric Guzmán González | 5 | | | | | | |
| Jan Franquesa | 2 | Jan Franquesa | 6 | | | | | | |
| Isaac "Suko" Leal | 1 | | | | | | | Francesco de la Cruz | 6 |
| Diego Mendez | 3 | | | | | | | Jan Spiess | 2 |
| Raúl David Carrero | 1 | Diego Mendez | 5 | | | | |
| Javi Damas | 4 | Javi Damas | 4 | | | | |
| Andrii Mostavchuk | 3 | | | Diego Mendez | 3 | | |
| Ricardo Ferreira | 7 | | | Israel Quispe | 1 | | |
| Gor Khechoyan | 2 | Ricardo Ferreira | 2 | | | | |
| Israel Quispe | 4 | Israel Quispe | 3 | | | | |
| Yana Rudenko | 2 | | | | | Diego Mendez | 1 |
| Moses Duckrell | 3 | | | | | Jan Spiess | 4 |
| Matías Boho | 5 | Matías Boho | 1 | | | | | Bronze medal match | Bronze medal match |
| Ramon Cierco | 7 | Ramon Cierco | 6 | | | | |
| Pol Jorquera | 6 | | | Ramon Cierco | 0 | | | Jan Franquesa | 6 |
| Pape Ndour | 4 | | | Jan Spiess | 1 | | | Diego Mendez | 4 |
| Felipe Pávez | 3 | Pape Ndour | 1 | | | | | | |
| Jan Spiess | 3 | Jan Spiess | 5 | | | | |
| Tarik | 1 | | | | | | | | |

## Reaction

After Francesco de la Cruz won the tournament, he was congratulated on social media by President of Peru Pedro Castillo.

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Ceremony | Category | Result | Ref. |
| 2021 | ESLAND Awards | Best Event of the Year | Nominated | |
| 2022 | The Streamer Awards | Best Streamed Event | Nominated | |