Balloon World Cup
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.
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 |
In 2022:
| Person | Role |
| Ibai Llanos | Announcers |
| José Riobó | Announcers |
| Ander Cortés | Announcers |
| Suzyroxx | Pre-show interviewers |
| Sekiam | Pre-show interviewers |
| Rafa Guerrero | Referees |
| Sandra Adell | Referees |
| Franc Tormo | Referees |
| Nacho Tellado | Assistant referee |
Competition rules
- Matches last for 2 minutes, except for the final, which lasts 5 minutes.
- Players touch the balloon with their hands, launching it upwards.
- Players can only touch the balloon once before their opponent touch it.
- Players are 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.2021
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. 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.After Francesco de la Cruz won the tournament, he was congratulated on social media by President of Peru Pedro Castillo.
Competitors
All of the competitors were announced as the representatives of their country.| Competitor | Country | ||||
| Walid Seddiki |  Algeria2022The 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. Participants2021 World Cup champion Francesco de la Cruz was announced as a participant during the Spanish qualifier. In September 2022, national qualifiers for multiple Latin American countries were announced as well.
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