Esports Foundation

🚀 Esports World Cup Opens New Global Pathways to EWC 2027. 🏆 Road to EWC targets 1.8 million players across 400+ events in 2027 as the new EWC Qualifier Program is opening new opportunities for tournament organizers and local esports communities worldwide. The EWC Qualifier Program is a new partner program within the Road to EWC that introduces two partner-operated routes: 🎯 EWC Direct Qualifiers expand the existing connection between established esports tournaments and the Road to EWC. Organizers of these events will continue to operate and fund their competitions under their own identity, retain local commercial opportunities, meet EWC and publisher standards, and provide players an official pathway to the Esports World Cup. 🌍 EWC Satellite Last Chance Qualifiers create a new route to local communities worldwide to build competitions connected to the EWC. With a focus on grassroots participation, local tournament organizers, federations, associations, cyber cafés, universities, esports venues, gaming festivals can apply to connect existing competitions or establish new tournaments under their own identity, with marketing support from the Esports Foundation. Winners earn guaranteed entry into the relevant EWC Last Chance Qualifier tournaments next summer, where they compete for a place in the EWC Main event. EWC Satellite Last Chance Qualifiers will initially be available across Chess, Counter-Strike 2, FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves, and Street Fighter 6, with more games to be announced. “Road to EWC has shown what is possible when the different pathways across competitive esports connect to one global destination,” said Faisal Bin Homran, Chief Product Officer, Esports Foundation. “There are great tournaments and strong esports communities in every part of the world. By bringing more of them into Road to EWC, we can create more opportunities for players to compete in their own communities and give local esports ecosystems an official role in building the pathway to the Esports World Cup.” 🛡️All EWC Direct Qualifiers and Satellite LCQs will operate in line with publisher requirements and EWC competitive standards, including rulesets, anti-cheat measures, officiating and verified results. Together, the program’s two routes create a stronger global esports ecosystem, more meaningful competitions and more opportunities for players. 🔗 Applications for the 2027 EWC Direct Qualifiers and Satellite LCQ program are now open on the EWC website, and will close on December 20, 2026. Approved events must conclude by June 1, 2027, ahead of the EWC 2027 Last Chance Qualifiers. We look forward to welcoming more players and communities to the Road to EWC 2027. #EsportsWorldCup2027 #EWC2027 #esports #gaming

We’re opening the Road to the Esports World Cup to more of the world. Through the EWC Qualifier Program, our partner program within Road to EWC, more tournament organisers and local communities can become part of the qualification journey for 2027. Esports is built every day by people who care about it. They run tournaments, bring communities together and give players somewhere to compete. EWC’s scale should create more opportunities for those people, strengthening the competitions they already run and helping them build new ones. EWC Direct Qualifiers expand an approach we already use with publishers and established tournaments: connecting their competitions to EWC. We’re opening that opportunity to more organisers, who retain their event identity and local commercial opportunities while giving their players an official qualification pathway. Great tournaments already exist around the world. We want more of them to benefit from being part of Road to EWC. EWC Satellite Last Chance Qualifiers create a new opportunity on a much broader scale. Potentially hundreds of smaller tournaments around the world could become official starting points on the Road to EWC. Gaming cafés, universities, local organisers, federations, venues and festivals can apply to connect an existing competition or build a new one. Their winners earn a guaranteed place in the relevant EWC Last Chance Qualifier, with accommodation and visa support from the Esports Foundation. They must then compete for a place in the EWC Main Event. This opens the qualification journey to many more communities and gives local organisers something powerful to build around. The first Satellite LCQs cover Chess, Counter-Strike 2, FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves and Street Fighter 6, with more titles to follow. We know that an LCQ place can lead all the way: Jafonso won the EA SPORTS FC title through that route in 2024. His run inspired the Jafonso Award, given to any player who advances through an LCQ and goes on to win their tournament. Opening more routes gives more players the chance to show what they can do. Applications are open until December 20, 2026. If you run a tournament, a venue or a community, this is an invitation to help build the Road to EWC 2027. Application contacts are in the first comment. That's how this all started... We did some of these "qualifiers" more than 20 years ago and I can't wait to see some incredible stories!

We already experienced it last year: Major winners had to qualify like everyone else. Next year, that road can start in your city. 🎮 Road to EWC is aiming for 1.8 million players across 400+ events in 2027. Take Counter-Strike, for example: 64 teams fought their way through our Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ). Players like s1mple, EliGE, dev1ce, JW, and KRIMZ competed alongside teams most fans had never heard of, all chasing one of four remaining places at EWC. 🏆 The LCQ has produced champions too. Jafonso came through the EA SPORTS FC LCQ and won EWC in 2024. Team Falcons did the same in Overwatch 2 in 2025. This summer, M. Zubair battled through the TEKKEN 8 LCQ and won the title for AG.AL, the Club that went on to win the Club Championship. 🌍 Today we’re opening more routes in with the EWC Qualifier Program: 🏟️ Established tournaments can become EWC Direct Qualifiers. They keep their own brand and commercial deals, and their best players get an official route to EWC. 🏠 Local organizers, internet cafés, universities, federations and gaming venues can run Satellite Last Chance Qualifiers. Winners earn a guaranteed place in the EWC LCQ next summer, and we provide accommodation and visa support. ⚔️ The first announced Satellite LCQs are in Chess, Counter-Strike 2, FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves and Street Fighter 6 - with more games to come. Each one runs with our publisher partners, respecting the rulesets and our competitive standards. For those of us who grew up competing at LANs: this is the part of esports we love most. You enter a tournament, sit down opposite your opponent and find out how good you really are. Reputation doesn’t get you in. 📅 Applications are open until 20 December, and approved events need to finish by 1 June 2027. If you run a tournament, a café or a uni league, I’d love to see your application. Link in the comments. So, what city do you believe really really needs a Satellite LCQ? 👇 Chess.com Valve corporation Esports Foundation #EsportsWorldCup #EWC2027 #RoadToEWC #Esports #Gaming

Take me there. Make me care. That’s what I want from watching sport, and what we wanted to give fans following the Esports World Cup in Paris this summer. Let me feel the atmosphere, hear the crowd and understand the pressure. Then help me get to know the people I’m watching, so their next match means something to me. Every game has its own stars, rivalries and history. Winning on that stage can change a player’s life. But to understand what a win means, it helps to know what came before it: the years of preparation, the previous defeats, the expectations. A great performance catches your attention. The person behind it can give you a reason to keep watching for years. The Club Championship connects those stories across games. You come to support your club in a game you know. Then its players in another game are competing for points that could decide the championship. You start learning who they are, what they’ve been through and what winning would mean to them. Their result matters to you before you even fully understand the game. That’s a powerful way to discover a sport. Those stories travelled far beyond Paris, through our broadcasts and films, through players and clubs, and through creators sharing EWC with their own communities. Our channels recorded 5.3 billion video views, while the competition generated 440 million hours watched. What we want is for someone to discover a moment, find a player or club they care about, and come back for the next match. Thank you to our team and everyone who helped bring Paris and the people competing there closer to fans around the world. This film (some call it aftermovie! 😅 ) gives you a glimpse of that work, and of the moments that made it worthwhile. 🎬

Grabowski has heard quite a lot about esports by now. I thought I’d put it all in one place for everyone else. These walks have become a chance to share stories from my years in esports and think out loud about where it goes next. Why we play, who owns the games, what makes us care. More links and walks to come. 🐕

Esports never stops. 🎮 Team Korea 🇰🇷 plays Team USA 🇺🇸 in Busan this weekend. Faker, Zeus, Gumayusi, Keria, Canyon and Zeka, a Bo5 in front of 2,400 fans, streamed on Disney+. They're warming up for the Asian Games in Aichi, Japan 🇯🇵, where esports is on the official program from 30 September, and Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 is in the field. 🌎 112 countries and territories submitted League of Legends rosters for the Esports Nations Cup 🌎 At the ENC Invitational at gamescom, Team Germany 🇩🇪 took on Great Britain 🇬🇧 in 🏎️ Rocket League and 🏎️Trackmania, with rosters from ESBD - E-Sport-Bund Deutschland e.V. and British Esports Federation. Our vision at the Esports Foundation is to make esports a global, tier-one sport. We work with organizations, institutions, and partners to develop players and coaches and build national pathways from the grassroots. France 🇫🇷 built a legal framework for esports competitions and professional players back in 2016. When the Esports World Cup came to Paris this summer, the French Government, two ministries, and the City of Paris worked alongside the French ecosystem. The Team France jersey, designed with adidas, was revealed on the Champs-Élysées. 🏆 At the EWC closing ceremony in the Grand Palais, President Emmanuel Macron presented the Club Championship trophy to AG.AL, in the presence of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦, the home of EWC, HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has put gaming and esports at the heart of Vision 2030. The National Gaming and Esports Strategy he launched in 2022 targets SAR 50 billion to GDP, 39,000 jobs and 250 gaming companies by 2030. Publishers create and own the games, and they've spent decades building the ecosystems around them. Trackmania (Ubisoft) can't be approached the same way as Rocket League (Epic Games), Counter-Strike (Valve corporation) or League of Legends (Riot Games). That diversity is fundamental to esports. National competition creates a different connection between players, their communities and their countries, and it complements what's there. Esports has spent more than two decades building a global ecosystem through games, players, clubs, and communities. Institutional support strengthens it, and the heart of what made esports global stays where it is. #EsportsNationsCup #ENC #gamescom #AsianGames #LeagueOfLegends #EsportsWorldCup #Esports #Gaming