FiReLEAGUE to hold event in Buenos Aires; Global Finals will return to Barcelona

Imperial and 9z will face off in the Argentine capital, while teams from the Americas and Europe will have qualifiers for the Global Finals.

FiReLEAGUE has announced its one-off event, FiReLEAGUE Battle, as well as the third Global Finals — the TO's second since going international in 2022.

These two events will take place in the second half of 2023. Before that, in March, the organization's academy league took place, which ended up with FURIA Academy defeating paiN Academy 2-1 in the LAN grand final in Buenos Aires.

FiReLEAGUE Battle will be FiRe's return to LAN since running the academy league final in March. It will be a one day affair on July 8 at the 10,000+ capacity Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires and tickets are already on sale.

The event's undercard will be the FiReLEAGUE Argentina grand final, which will give one of the local teams a spot at the Global Finals, followed by a heated regional rivalry featuring an invited team, Imperial, and 9z, the FiReLEAGUE Argentina champions in 2021 and 2022.

Three qualifiers running from July to September in Brazil, North America and Europe, will then kick off the road to the FiReLEAGUE Global Finals, where three invited teams in paiN, Imperial and 9z are waiting for the five remaining competitors. One spot will go to the aforementioned FiReLEAGUE Argentina champions and another invite remains to be handed out.

In the 2022 edition the Global Finals were held in FC Barcelona's famed stadium, the Camp Nou, in the Catalan capital. Back then it was Spirit who were crowned champions after beating paiN 2-1 in the grand final.

No venue has yet been established for this year's Global Finals, set to take place on October 25-29, although the tournament organizer stated they are expected to be once again held in an emblematic location in Barcelona, and once again without a crowd and focused on the broadcast show.