Arena of Valor (AoV) - 2018 Arena of Valor International Championship (AIC) Announced

The 2018 Arena of Valor International Championship (AIC) was announced by Garena with a record-breaking $600,000 prize pool. The tournament will take place in Vietnam and Thailand and consist of the sixteen best teams from eleven regions.

Arena of Valor International Championship (AIC) Breaks Prize Pool Record

From Garena Press Release

Garena released initial details regarding the highly-anticipated Arena of Valor International Championship (AIC) in a press release on October 8, 2018. First, the prize pool for the event is set at $600,000 USD, eclipsing the mobile gaming record that Arena of Valor set with the Arena of Valor World Cup earlier this year. And like the AWC, the AIC will first hold a bootcamp starting November 4 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where the top sixteen teams from eleven regions will compete. From there, the grand finals will take place in Bangkok, Thailand.

Though the graphic above displays “Nov 23 – Dec 16,” no other details regarding the dates have been released.

“Breaking the Boundary”

The theme of the 2018 AIC is “Breaking the Boundary,” representing the blend of cultures of host countries Vietnam and Thailand. Arena of Valor is incredibly popular in both countries, with broadcasts of the regional AOG (Vietnam) and RPL (Thailand) regularly garnering over a million views on their respective official YouTube channels.

Building on the AWC

Team Korea celebrating their AWC championship in July in Los Angeles, California

The AWC, held in Los Angeles in July, was a huge success globally, attracting over ten million unique viewers to its various broadcasts and setting a standard in esports for both AoV and mobile gaming. The AIC and AWC are now established as the top two global competitions for Arena of Valor, supported by various regional professional leagues like the Garena Challenger Series of Taiwan and the Valor Series of the Americas and Europe. In addition, amateur competitions, campus competitions, and city competitions continue to in every region.

India To Be Included Among Contestants

India, which received its own server in March 2018, will be represented at the AIC with presumably one team. Some of the rest of the eleven regions’ initial teams will be decided as follows:

  • The European, North American, and South American teams will be decided via the Valor Series
  • The Garena Challenger Series (GCS) will determine Taiwan’s representative
  • The RoV Pro League (RPL) will determine Thailand’s representative
  • The Arena of Glory (AOG) will determine Vietnam’s representative
  • The AoV Star League (ASL) will determine Indonesia’s representative
  • The Malaysia/Singapore/Philippines was determined via the Valor Cup

Presumably, the other two regions not listed are China and South Korea – both of whom participated in the AWC – though it is unclear how South Korea will select their representative without an AoV league currently running in their country (the world champion Korean roster is participating in the GCS as team ahq). In addition, with four more slots available than there were at the AWC, it is as yet unknown which regions will receive them and on what grounds. At the AWC, Taiwan received an extra team because SMG won the AIC in 2017, and Thailand was granted another representative by virtue of winning the Throne of Glory (TOG) tournament.

Update: According to the Vietnam and Thai Garena Facebook pages, each host country will receive 3 spots each. It is as yet unknown how they will be determined.

So far, Valor Cup Season 3 champion Tamago from Singapore is the only team to qualify for the AIC.

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