The Esports World Cup has returned for its second year with even more games and prestige on the line. With all the excitement of major titles as League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Dota 2, and VALORANT to name a few participating, as well as well-established organizations such as T1, Sentinels, and Team Liquid in attendance, the EWC has become a collecting centre for esports fans to enjoy all their favorite titles in one extravaganza.
Recently, Strafe Esports sat down with Fabian Scheuermann, Chief Games Officer at the Esports World Cup Foundation, to gain a little insight into what goes into producing one of the largest esports endeavours in recent history.
*The following interview has been edited for clarity and readability
A Titanic Endeavor
Q: What do the logistics and challenges of incorporating so many esports into a single event look like?
The Club Championship is the core of the Esports World Cup, the backbone of our mission to help the ecosystem grow sustainably. The goal each summer is to be additive to an already amazing competitive calendar.
Incorporating 24 different esports titles and hosting 25 separate tournaments under the banner of a single event is by no means a small feat to accomplish.
Each game comes with its own competitive structure, tournament operations, technical needs, and community expectations, all of which then have to fit within a single event. We’re also planning out schedules, players services, broadcast production, and fan experiences to ensure that everything runs smoothly and that both players and fans get the complete experience they deserve.
There’s no other event in esports that’s operating at this scale, but that’s the result of the ambition of every person working on the Esports World Cup.
Q: What was the process behind bringing Chess to the EWC this year?
Chess has experienced an incredible digital transformation, becoming one of the most played games in the world thanks to platforms like Chess.com and a surge in popularity through streaming, influencers, and cultural moments like the release of The Queen’s Gambit.
The universal appeal of chess has never been higher, so there’s no better time than now to add it to the EWC. It’s clear that Clubs competing at the EWC are prioritising Chess: 11 of the 12 grandmasters qualified for EWC have been signed by Clubs, and several of the top Clubs from last year’s Club Championship have signed multiple players, including Falcons, Liquid, Vitality, and Natus Vincere.
Chess has been moving closer and closer to esports over the past few years, and having it in the EWC gives these players and participating Clubs a special opportunity to reach new audiences.
The Vision is Not Complete
Despite being the second year of running and the already massive undertaking of 24 esports titles, the EWCF is far from done. Their ambitions run even deeper and as the event continues to expand in ensuing years, we can only expect further growth from what is already the closest we have gotten to an Esports ‘Olympics’.
Q: What’s new to expect this year compared to 2024?
For the competition itself, we’ve of course added four new titles to our competitive lineup: Chess, FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves, CROSSFIRE, and VALORANT. We’ve also announced a record-breaking $70+ million prize pool for the event, which reflects our commitment to the esports ecosystem and will further establish the EWC as the global benchmark for competitive gaming.
Q: Is this the completed vision for the EWC project?
The Esports World Cup was always designed with a long-term vision to unite the global esports community and leapfrog the industry overall. Ultimately, achieving this will take time.
A major component of that has been multi-year commitments with leading game publishers, so that together, we can build a stronger, more sustainable esports ecosystem. As a result of these partnerships, titles like Apex Legends, Call of Duty, VALORANT, and League of Legends are guaranteed to be at EWC through at least 2027.
We’ve shown that a global, multi-game event can work at scale, but the full potential of EWC will continue to grow in the years ahead. Our goal now is to keep evolving, expanding opportunities, and shaping the future of competitive gaming.
Q: How many esports do you envision in the final form of the EWC? What do you consider when potentially including a new game?
Our ambition is to grow every year, but that doesn’t always mean adding new games to the Club Championship, so there isn’t a specific number we’re targeting for a total number of games. There are many ways of growing and we’ve shown that this year with the expansion of our global qualifying system and by adding competition to the Festival.
Our selection process is always thoughtful: we look at the strength and sustainability of a game’s competitive ecosystem, its global player and fan base, the publisher’s commitment to esports, and the cultural relevance of the title within the broader gaming landscape.
We’re constantly keeping a close eye on new and expanding titles in esports and looking into ways that we can add them to the EWC, in a way that facilitates growth for publishers, the EWC, the esports ecosystem, and the gaming industry as a whole.
Finding A Unique Space in the Industry
The EWC entered the scene properly in 2024 and while there have been challenges in convincing of its cultural impact within an already competitive esports calendar, the breadth of the EWCF’s ambitions and success found in 2024 have gone a long way towards convincing many that the EWC as a mainstay is a net positive for the esports scene as a whole.
Q: From your (EWC's) first run in 2024, some of the games in your catalogue outperformed expectations in terms of performance and delivery. During the planning process, what goes behind deciding how each game tournament is structured and how it all fits together?
Every game has its own competitive identity and respecting that is critical when planning tournament structures. We work closely with publishers to align with the best aspects of their existing competitive formats and deliver the best experiences to players and fans.
We also have to think about how every individual game tournament fits into the larger Esports World Cup event. Balancing spotlight opportunities, schedules, and competitive flow is one of the most complex parts of building the event, but it’s also what makes the Esports World Cup unique. Our vision for the EWC is long-term, and this is still just the beginning.
Q: Some of the games incorporated in 2024 had their circuit tournament baked right into the event, and for many fans, that certainly added a lot to the viewership and interest. But in other games, such as League of Legends, where the tournament was a separate entity from the circuit, did that bring unique challenges from a marketability standpoint?
When a game’s main season or major is directly tied into EWC, the storylines feel very natural: fans are already invested, and the stakes are immediately clear.
In games like League of Legends, where EWC runs separately from the main circuit, the exciting challenge is to create a standalone narrative that still feels meaningful and exciting for the community, the Clubs, and the players. We work closely with publishers to build formats and storylines that complement the existing system and that are beneficial to all stakeholders.
In VALORANT, for instance, we’re using competitive elements that fans expect out of top-tier international events, like a double-elimination group stage, and best-of-three matches throughout the whole tournament culminating in a best-of-five grand finals. With VALORANT and other titles debuting this year, we’re excited to introduce them to a larger global audience while giving each game’s dedicated audience a tournament they’ll want to tune in for.
Q: How do you define success for an event as massive as the Esports World Cup?
Success for us is the continued growth of not only the EWC but also the sustainable growth of the industry as a whole. Last year, we saw 500 million people around the world tune in to the EWC, with over 2.6 million attending the EWC Festival, and we expect those numbers to increase this year.
What we want to see is for players, Clubs, publishers, and fans all to leave the event with more opportunities than they had before: stronger careers, bigger communities, and a bigger global stage to build on year after year. We want to create unique opportunities to connect communities around the world and grow them beyond our core esports audience while staying true to what makes these communities and games great.
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Featured Image Credit: EWCF
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