Garena has unveiled the Free Fire MAX Asia Invitational 2025, the first cross-regional esports tournament where Indian teams will compete in since 2020.
The invitational tournament will take place in December and features teams from across seven regions.
Garena hasn’t revealed the exact schedule or format for the event yet. However, the company has confirmed that the regions which will be a part of the event are Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Vietnam, and India.
A total of 26 teams will be competing. These teams have been directly invited into the tournament. While the complete list hasn’t officially been confirmed yet, the announcement showed many logos of participating esports organisations.
This included GodLike Esports, S8UL, Falcons, Total Gaming, Head Hunters, P Esports, DRS, Bigetron x Vitality, Revenant XSpark, and more.
It also leaked an unannounced collaboration between Orangutan and Two Side Gamers. Per the team’s logo, the organisation is tying up with the creator duo to bring OG x TSG.
While little is known about the tournament, Indian Free Fire caster Gaming Aura revealed some details in a YouTube video about the tournament. According to him, the prize pool is set to be $50,000 (~£38,000).
Furthermore, the tournament will feature both Battle Royale and Clash Squad modes. He also added that this tournament is an opportunity for Indian teams to compete against international squads ahead of a bigger roadmap in 2026.
This comes after Indian Free Fire esports fans were left disappointed with the region not getting any slots in the recently concluded Free Fire World Series (FFWS) Global Finals 2025.
India’s First International Free Fire Esports Event in Five Years
The Free Fire MAX Asia Invitational 2025 will be the first time since 2020 that Indian teams will compete in a multi-region tournament.
The long wait comes because of Free Fire’s ban in India back in February 2022. While Indian teams did qualify for the FFWS 2021 in Singapore, they were unable to travel for the event due to travel restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the recent Free Fire MAX India Cup and now the Asia Invitational, Garena is gearing up operations for the game in the region.