The biggest esports tournament in the world, with its $75M prize pool, will move from Saudi Arabia to France. The decision to move it from Riyadh to Paris comes after it became clear that the war in Iran is not going to be over anytime soon.
The Esports World Cup 2026 in France
Originally, the multi-game esports tournament was supposed to be held in Riyadh, but the organizers made a big decision to change. This became clear following a report from HamesBeat’s Alexander Lee.
According to the CEO of the Esports World Cup, he really hoped that the tournament would eventually take place in Saudi Arabia. However, the uncertainty in the Middle East seems to be troubling many people. As a result, the tournament’s organizers decided to move the event to Paris.
Keep in mind that this decision comes less than two months before the tournament begins. EWC 2026 is supposed to include 24 games and feature a massive $75M prize pool.
Counter-Strike 2 at EWC 2026
Unless there are changes in the Counter-Strike 2 tournament format, the competition will take place near the end of the event. The matches should begin on August 12 and end on August 23. During that time, we will have 32 teams, which is 2x more than the EWC 2025. On top of that, the prize pool will reach $2,000,000, which is $750,000 more than last year.
We do not know which CS2 teams will attend the event because the slots will be determined following an open qualifier. It should have had a total of 128 teams, but we do not know if it will take place, considering that the event has moved to Paris.
Of course, the global VRS will determine 21 slots for the tournament. There will also be one slot for the winner of the Hero Esports Asian Champions League, which is a tournament that’s currently taking place in Shanghai.
We really hope that there won’t be any issues with the CS2 tournament at the EWC 2026. Needless to say, it is one of the events that everyone is looking forward to.
