Mike McCabe COO of EWC Foundation: "The Home Is Always Going to Be Riyadh"

The Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC) had its grand launch on July 8, commemorating the official start of the event with an opening press conference at the Hotel de Ville in the heart of Paris. With many speakers kicking off the event, like the CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation, Ralf Reichert, Emmanuel Grégoire, the mayor of Paris, and others, giving carefully crafted speeches on stage.

Following an opening ceremony with multiple speakers, media were given the opportunity to chat with representatives of the Esports World Cup Foundation, game publishers, or even reps of prolific esports organizations such as Team Vitality. We managed to speak with Mike McCabe, the COO of the Esports World Cup Foundation. 

Below is a conversation we managed to have with Mike at the opening press conference. The COO gave some insight into the "huge logistical shift" of transferring the event to Paris from the previously-planned Riyadh, whether there is a plan for the EWC to venture outside of Paris following this year's event, and how sustainable the prize pool is for future events.

*The interview was edited slightly for conciseness and clarity.

The Grand Pivot from Riyadh to Paris

Strafe: We’d like to know about the huge endeavour that you guys had to endure over the course of the last couple weeks, which was namely the move from Riyadh to Paris. What were the main hurdles, and also what was the biggest hurdle to overcome?

"Yeah, it was a huge logistical shift. And so, if you imagine we spent 10 months of the year designing and planning for the event, so we had everything ready to go. But we also have contingencies because these things happen, and so we always need to be prepared. 

The biggest hurdle that we had to face was finding somewhere that would have a venue. A few things_ a venue that would be big enough for us to be able to operate at scale, the transport Logistics to enable us to be able to move that number of people and players to one location, and somewhere that we would be able to form an immigration standpoint, be able to bring players from over 100 countries into that location to compete as well. And then, finally, somewhere that has a really strong fan base for Esports. We wanted it to be something that was authentic to that city."

"And so, we spent a lot of time over the first few weeks of exploring, and then rapidly landed on this location (Paris Expo), where we were incredibly lucky to have Port de Versailles for three months. We took one of the venues just a week ago. So it was very soon, very recent, but we've done a huge amount of work to design and build out all of those capabilities."

Strafe: Following up on that, how was it coordinating with game publishers like Riot Games, EA, Ubisoft, and others? How open were they to this move and was it difficult or smooth sailing?

"No, it was incredible. They were incredibly supportive. I think for me what this experience has really demonstrated is how the ecosystem comes together. So the ecosystem, whether it be the government, the [game] publishers, the clubs, the players, everybody really, were of the same mind. We don't want to put the fans or the players or the publishers or anyone in harm’s way. We want to give them a smooth experience, and so everybody was incredibly supportive about the move, and there was no friction. No challenges with anyone, it was great!"

Setting an Initial Footprint in Paris

Strafe: Given the circumstances of the EWC’s move from Riyadh to Paris this year, this kind of sets a footprint. Do you think that in the future the EWC could host its events in multiple countries or regions. Or is the EWC’s idea to keep it in Riyadh, if possible?

"The home's always going to be Riyadh. I think the plan has always been that we would at some stage do a rotation [of where the event would be hosted]. Obviously, this just has accelerated that rotation and just brought it forward. So, it helps us gather a lot of learnings. And so, we'll take all of those learnings as to what worked really well with operating in a different country. What are the pros? What are the challenges that we faced there as well? But our hope is absolutely that in the future, there'll be times that we’ll rotate.

But, as I said, Riyadh’s always home. We have such a loyal fan base in the Kingdom as well that we want to make sure that they have an opportunity to see the best players."

An Enormous Prize Pool as One of the Pillars

Strafe: The EWC sports a gigantic prize pool, spread across so many esports. I wanted to ask about sustainability and do you anticipate a shift, either negative or positive, of the prize pool? And what can affect it in the long run?

"Yeah, the prize pool's always been one of our kind of key pillars of life-changing prizes. And so, yeah, this year, it's over $75 million dollars spread across those 25 tournaments and $30 million for the Club Championship as well. It's a huge prize to that winning club, it's always going to be a pillar of EWC. 

ENC is different. It's about winning for National Pride. Yeah, so we have a much smaller prize pool there and try to make it much more about the pride of representing your country, your territory. But look, it’s our plan, it's always a pillar and as to where the number will be in the future years, we’ll continue to evolve."

The EWC in Paris just recently concluded its VALORANT tournament with 100 Thieves taking the dub over NRG. The event runs until August 23, with much more esports action to come.

Stay tuned for more exclusive interviews, news, and scorelines from this year's Esports World Cup 2026 in the heart of France at Strafe.