A legendary Japanese game developer launches the next global fighting esports league.

Arc System Works is one of the best development studios in the world — for the fighting genre. The company actively supports the competitive community of their games. It has announced the Arc World Tour 2024, the most prestigious competitive series for a few titles. We are happy to summarize all the details on AWT 2024, including the schedule and format of the competition.

AWT 2024 games

The Tour features three of the most recent fighting games developed and published by Arc System Works:

  • Guilty Gear Strive
  • Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
  • Uni2 (Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes)

Competitive format of the Arc World Tour 2024

The league consists of many official and community tournaments. Winning official Qualifiers (Platinum level) means getting a direct invite to the AWT 2024 Finals. Finishing in Top 8 at smaller events (Gold and Silver levels) brings league points — the best players in the general standings also proceed to the Finals.

Uni2 is an exception here. There will be no standing for this game, only direct invites for winners of the Platinum Qualifiers.

AWT 2024: Points distribution (image via arcsystemworks.jp)
AWT 2024: Points distribution (image via arcsystemworks.jp)

AWT 2024 Finals happen in Spring of 2025. There will be:

  • 16 spots for Guilty Gear Strive players
  • 16 spots for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
  • 8 spots for Uni2

Players may hope to get the final invites at the Last Chance Qualifiers, which traditionally happens right before the main event.

AWT 2024 schedule

These events have the highest levels within the Arc World Tour 2024: Platinum and Gold.

EVO Japan 2024
Japan / Tokyo
April 27-29
Platinum
Brussels Challenge Major Edition
Belgium / Brussels
May 10-12
Gold
Combo Breaker
USA / Chicago
May 24-26
Gold
Battle Arena Melbourne
Australia / Melbourne
May 31 - June 2
Gold
Super Tournament
Korea / Seoul
June 8-9
Gold
Only The Best
Italy / Napoli
June 21-23
Gold
CEO
USA / Orland
June 28-30
Gold
The MIXUP
France / Lyon
July
Gold
EVO
USA / Las Vegas
July 19-21
Platinum
FV MAJOR
Malaysia / Kuala Lumpur
July 27-28
Gold
VSFighting
UK / Birmingham
August 16-18
Platinum
ARCREVO in SENZAN
Japan / Yokohama
August 31 - September 1
Gold
Ultimate Fighting Arena
France / Aubervilliers
September 13-15
Platinum
Thunderstruck
Mexico / Guadalupe
September 14-15
Gold
Clash Of The Olympians
Greece / Athens
September 20-22
Gold
Thaiger Uppercut
Thailand / Bangkok
October 4-6
Gold
East Coast Throwdown
USA / Connecticut
October 11-13
Gold
Climax of Night
USA / TBD
TBD
Platinum, only Uni2
CEOtaku
USA / Orlando
 December 6-8, 2025
Gold
rosty Faustings
USA / Chicago
TBD
Platinum

Arc World Tour 2024 prize pools

Winners of the Finals for GGST and GBVS: Rising will get $50,000. A UNi2 winner will get $20,000.

AWT 2024 prize pools (image via arcsystemworks.jp)
AWT 2024 prize pools (image via arcsystemworks.jp)

Who won AWT 2023?

The Arc World Tour 2023 featured the same three games, but only Guilty Gear Strive had a year-long league. GBVS: Rising and Uni2 had a smaller format of qualifiers.

The winners of three Finals are:

  • Ismaila "Verix" Gueye from Senegal is the Guilty Gear Strive AWT 2023 Champion
  • Junichi "Fukunaga" Kumano from Japan is the Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising AWT 2023 Champion
  • Randy "Knotts" from the U.S. is the UNi2 AWT 2023 Champion

What is Guilty Gear Strive?

It’s a pretty popular anime fighting game, an in-house creation of Arc System Works. GGST was launched in 2021 and got a lot of attention from the fighting games community and from gamers in general. It’s a visually beautiful game, with an amazing soundtrack. Recently, it got a new character, A.B.A.

What is Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising?

This game is based on the Japanese social app/game Granblue Fantasy. It features simplified input, which makes the fighting experience accessible for beginners to the genre.

GBVS: Rising has a free-to-play version with a weekly rotation of characters.

A big RPG Granblue Fantasy: Relink was released in February 2024 for PS4, PS5, and Windows.

What is Uni2?

The Under Night In-Birth series was created by another Japanese company,  French-Bread. Arc System Works participates in development and publishing in the way they worked on games with other partners, such as Dragon Ball FighterZ with Bandai Namco.

Uni2 invites players to a unique story. The matches are distinguished by a great versatility of mechanics and character archetypes. It’s an anime game with a very dedicated fan-base.

We will cover everything interesting and important from the Arc World Tour 2024 here, on esports.gg. Also, you’ll find various info on fighting esports in general on our portal.