The Esports World Cup 2026 will not be held in Saudi Arabia: Team Falcons streamer

Abu Najd, a content creator and ambassador for Team Falcons, announced on his X page that the Esports World Cup 2026 will be held in France. The tournament organizers have not confirmed this information.

Earlier, representatives of the EWC stated that rumors about the competition’s venue being moved were untrue, and that any changes would be announced on the championship’s official account; however, this post was soon deleted. In addition, ticket sales for the Esports World Cup have been suspended.

Journalists from the ECHO MENA portal analyzed the likelihood of the EWC being held in France: virtually no events have been announced yet for July and August 2026 at the country’s largest arenas, and the schedule is limited to periods before or after that timeframe. At the same time, hotels closest to the event venues are being actively booked, but this could also be due to the tourist season or other events. Furthermore, ECHO MENA has determined that one of the Esports World Cup Foundation's high-ranking officials is currently in France.

HLTV Editor-in-Chief Milan Striker Shveida also commented on the rumors regarding a change in venue for the EWC and ENC. According to him, Europe is not the only option being considered.

“I’ve heard about a few locations. I don’t know which one is true, and I don’t want to speculate on that right now, but I’ve heard about European and Asian options that they’ve been considering as alternatives.

Overall, there’s only one country that could really handle that kind of infrastructure while having relatively fewer visa issues than other places. And that’s probably China,” Striker said.

Esports World Cup 2026 is scheduled to take place from 06.07.2026 to 23.08.2026. The tournament’s total prize pool will be $75,000,000, and in the Dota 2 championship as part of the event, 24 teams will compete for $2,000,000. At this time, the official venue for the championship remains the Boulevard City multicomplex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

As CyberScore previously reported, the dates for the open qualifiers for the Esports World Cup 2026 have been announced.