The Esports World Cup Foundation is announcing the Esports Nations Cup (ENC), a new flagship competition built around national representation in esports.
At the New Global Sport Conference, the foundation said the ENC will be the first credible, recurring global event where the world’s best players represent their countries, not their clubs, across the most popular and competitive esports titles. The first event will be in November
“This is on a scale that was unimaginable two years ago,” said Ralf Reichert, chairman of the Esports World Cup Foundation, at the NGSC event.
Normally, esports teams are organized around talent, and quite often the biggest owners seek that talent from around the world, mixing the best wherever they can be found. But this kind of national organization is an approach that is more consistent with the Olympics — and Saudi Arabia, which is home to the Esports World Cup, wants esports to be added to the Olympics as the great sporting event comes to Saudi Arabia. The organizers didn’t say that, but that’s probably the subtext for what is happening here.
At the event, Saudi princes took the stage, noting that 63% of the population of the country is under 30. The Esports World Cup in its second year awarded $70 million in prizes, and last year’s event drew more than 500 million viewers and six million visitors. Saudi HRH Prince Faisal Bin Bandar Bin Sultan Al Saud said at the event, “We are putting them in the light they deserve to be, the cream of the crop of sports.”
He said this is all the first step in taking a leadership role in the industry.
“It shows the importance this has to the economy,” Bandar said.
Of course, there’s nothing that gets the enthusiasm of fans going like a hometown team. Saudi Arabia’s Team Falcons won the Esports World Cup last year, and there was significant pride around that. And many esports teams consist of players from the same area. So organizing along these lines of nationality is kind of the next step in building local pride.
Speaking in Riyadh at NGSC before a big crowd that included 500 CEOs, representatives of the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) today announced the Esports Nations Cup (ENC), a landmark tournament where the best esports players in the world will compete not only for professional glory with their clubs, but for the honor of representing their countries. The ENC introduces national pride to the global esports stage in a recurring format and is the first event of its kind at this scale.
“Nation versus nation competition is the ultimate expression of sport,” said Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation, in a statement. “The ENC makes this a reality for esports, giving every fan a flag to rally behind and every player the pride of representing their country. It’s a stage to create heroes, inspire the next generation, and, together with our partners and stakeholders, build the national ecosystems that will accelerate the growth of esports worldwide.”
The inaugural edition will be co-developed with the publishers and video game companies – Electronic Arts, Krafton, Tencent, and Ubisoft. These partners bring the scale and insight essential to building a global competition for national teams that reflects the values and integrity of each game. Each one of them will help shape their game’s national ranking systems, qualification pathways, and event formats, ensuring the ENC resonates with their fans and meets the highest standards of competition.
The ENC will feature national teams from all major regions, including North America, South America, Europe, MENA, Africa, Asia, and SEA & Oceania, competing in both team-based and solo-player formats. A multi-layered qualification model will balance competitiveness and inclusivity: combining global rankings, regional qualifiers, and Wildcard entries, including solidarity placements, to ensure a broad and representative competitive stage in every game.
All players will receive guaranteed prize money, with equal placement rewards across all games, ensuring fairness for players. The Esports World Cup Foundation will work with relevant stakeholders in each region to shape how teams are formed and represented.
The ENC will be hosted every two years, providing a dependable structure for players, coaches, and esports organizations – and confidence for publishers, clubs, and partners to invest in long-term national team programs.
As the newest addition to the EWCF portfolio, the ENC builds on the momentum of the Esports World Cup – the world’s largest multi-title esports event – and extends its mission to a new layer of global competition. While the EWC unites the best clubs, the ENC unlocks a new frontier powered by national identity and regional representation.
The ENC will debut in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in November 2026, before moving to a rotating host model, bringing national esports teams to fans and cultures worldwide.
The ENC announcement was made at the New Global Sport Conference in Riyadh, where 1,500 industry leaders convened to discuss the convergence of gaming, esports and sport.
More information about the Esports Nations Cup will be released in the coming weeks.
Disclosure: NGSC paid my way to Riyadh.