The Esports World Cup, a yearly multi-game esports tournament, is tying up with the ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) as the operating partners, the latter announced in a press release today. The multi-year partnership will see EFG continue operating the tournament, including delivery and production.
“EFG’s operational excellence and industry-leading experience have been invaluable as we execute this world-first event, and we’re excited to lean on our multi-year partnership as we look to expand Esports World Cup programming and accelerate the industry’s growth,” said Ralf Reichert, CEO, Esports World Cup Foundation.
Image Credits: Esports World Cup
While the Esports World Cup was already announced as an annual series, this news comes as an official confirmation of the esports competition returning in the years to come.
The Esports World Cup 2024 is taking place at the Boulevard City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 3 to Aug. 25. It features 22 game championships, with a total prize pool of $60 million, the biggest in esports history for a single tournament. EFG didn’t officially confirm if the future tournaments will happen at the same venue, although that will likely be the case.
Notably, the Esports World Cup is backed by the Saudi government. Additionally, the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund owns Savvy Games Group, a holding company that acquired ESL and FACEIT back in 2022 to form the EFG.
Image Credits: ESL FACEIT Group
EFG further said in the press release that it will be adding titles from the Esports World Cup into the ESL, DreamHack, and FACEIT platforms.
This comes as the EFG hosted qualifiers for some games to the Esports World Cup 2024. In this year’s tournaments, there are largely two types of tournaments, one which is a part of the official esports roadmap for a game, and backed by the publisher, and others operating in a third-party format.
A still from the opening ceremony of the Esports World Cup 2024. (Image Credits: Esports World Cup)
The MLBB MSC Cup, PUBG Mobile World Cup, and the Honor of Kings Midseason Cup are examples of the former, which had direct involvement from the publishers. In these tournaments, teams qualified through regional publisher-led esports events.
For other games like League of Legends, Fortnite, and Apex Legends, the tournaments are third-party events in the Esports World Cup 2024. In these tournaments, EFG has run regional EWC Qualifiers or seeded it through other events it runs, such as the Dreamhack.
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