Esports Nations Cup confirms 16 game titles for inaugural edition

The Esports Nations Cup (ENC), the nation-based competition organized by the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF), has confirmed a total of 16 titles for the inaugural edition which is set to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, later this year.

Esports Nations Cup unveils game partners and details on qualification process

The competition will see tournaments across 16 different game titles played across four weeks in November, with both team-based and solo-player competitions. While the game titles have yet to be unveiled, the ENC confirmed that the official game partners for the first edition are going to be Electronic Arts, Chess.com, Krafton, MOONTON Games, SNK, Tencent, and Ubisoft. Additional game partners may be announced at a later date.

According to a release, the Esports Nations Cup finals will see team competitions feature 24 to 48 national teams per title, with solo player tournaments featuring 32 to 128 players. Every nation will only be able to field one team per title and up to two players in solo competition. In certain titles, however, qualification pathways may allow multiple teams or players from the same nation to compete at earlier stages to determine the official national representative.

Top-performing national Teams will receive direct invitations at the ENC

The release also stated that half of the participating national teams and players will receive direct invitations based on the competitive performance of players from their respective countries, with the remaining half being determined through open regional online qualifiers. The final event will see each national team and player play at least three matches. Further details on formats, qualifiers, and competition dates will be shared at a later date.

Held every two years and moving to a rotating host-city model, the ENC is set to become the first-ever nation-based esports competition, arriving in the wake of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and EWCF ending their cooperation, a partnership that had been expected to pave the way for the first-ever Olympic Esports Games.