Featured image: Microsoft Copilot
A part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 initiative is the Esports World Cup launching its inaugural edition, which will span for eight weeks, starting from 3rd July to 25th August, 2024. This will be taking place in the country’s capital, Riyadh, and the tournament features a total prize pool of $60,000,000, with 21 esports titles and a Club Championship. This is one of the esports industry’s biggest events of 2024.
What is the Esports World Cup Club Championship?
The Esports World Cup Club Championship comes with a separate prize pool of $20M, and will crown the Club Champion from the team that will consistently perform for the eight week period out of the 16 participating teams. The rules are to win at least one tournament, and to qualify for the Club Championship participants will have to be shortlisted in the top eight teams that complete at least two EWC tournaments.
This initiative is a part of the Esports World Cup Foundation’s efforts to encourage esports organizations to form teams across multiple disciplines. The organizations that are a part of the EWC Club Programme include FaZe Clan, T1, and G2 Esports. Funding has been provided for 30 esports organizations, but that does not guarantee entry into the Esports World Cup.
What Games Are Featured In This Tournament?
- Apex Legends: Apex Legends was among the first games to be announced as part of the Esports World Cup. The event will have a total of 40 teams and a $2M prize pool. 32 teams were invited to compete in the event based on ALGS S1 league placements. The remaining eight were decided by qualifiers. The game’s LGBTQ characters will be featured in the tournament, as clarified by the game’s developer Respawn.
- Counter-Strike 2: For the Counter-Strike 2 competition there will be a total of 15 teams competing for their share of a $1M prize pool. The winners of the two prominent Counter-Strike tournaments — Team Spirit (IEM Katowice 2024 champions) and Natus Vincere (PGL Major Copenhagen champions) — were invited to Riyadh. Joining the organizations are the top ranking ESL World ranking — G2 Esports, FaZe Clan and MOUZ. The remaining four teams are MIBR (South America), FlyQuest (Oceania), The MongolZ (Asia) and JijieHao (Middle East).
- Call of Duty: Although every team has been announced for the event, there will be 16 teams battling it out in Call of Duty Modern Warfare III for a $1.8M prize pool. Being the last title to be picked for the Esports World Cup, the event will feature teams such as Atlanta FaZe, Cloud 9, Toronto Ultra and Team Heretics.
- Call of Duty: Warzone: Call of Duty: Warzone will have an overall of 16 teams participating for a $1M prize pool, and will be one of the first titles in the multi-week tournament. The invite-only event will feature teams such as Team Falcons, Guild Esports, NAVI and Team Vitality.
- Dota 2: The Riyadh Masters after originally being a part of Saudi Arabia’s multi-esports title event Gamers8 in 2023 is returning in 2024. A total of 20 teams will be competing for $5M in prize pool winnings, making it the highest figure of any individual event. The qualification is linked to the ESL Pro Tour Leaderboard, including Team Liquid, Team Falcons and Tundra Esports.
- EA FC 2024: A total of 16 players will compete in the Esports World Cup 2024’s EA FC 2024 event, for a prize pool of $1,296,740 (~￡1M). Players will have to qualify from DreamHacks Dallas (two) and DreamHacks Sweden (six) as well as top players receiving direct invites to play. This will not be part of the EA FC Pro ecosystem as declared by EA Sports.
- Fortnite: With 16 teams overall competing for a $1M prize pool, Fortnite will be taking on a different format for the Battle Royale title. The format will take on a competitive UEFN (Unreal Editor for Fortnite) island experience, where the 4v4 game mode will show players using Capture the Flag and Hardpoint. The qualifiers will have six participants from DreamHack Dallas who have also been invited to the tournament. Epic Games, publishers of Fortnite, have stated they will have no involvement in the tournament, making it a third party event by the Esports World Cup Foundation.
- League of Legends: Riot Games’ League of Legends is set to be a part of the EWC 2024, with eight teams from North America, the EMEA region and Korea competing for $1M. Although stating that it will be a third party organization, Riot Games is giving space for teams to practise and compete in the tournament in its official esports roadmap.
Other Games Featured In The Tournament
The other games featured in the Esports World Cup include Free Fire, Honor of Kings, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Overwatch 2, PUBG Mobile, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Rainbow Six Siege, Rennsport, Rocket League, Starcraft II, Street Fighter 6, Teamfight Tactics, and Tekken 8. And the prize pools range from $500,000 to $2M
News from this event will be made available if there is more information about it.
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Written by Jeffrey Osei-Agyeman
