Since its launch in 2024, the Esports World Cup (EWC) has generated a wealth of debate from inside the entire esports neighborhood.
The annual multi-title occasion, organised by the Esports World Cup Basis (EWCF), takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and has raised considerations round inclusivity since its creation.
Forward of this 12 months’s version, Mike McCabe, COO of the Esports World Cup Basis and Fabian Scheurmann, Chief Video games Officer, mentioned LGBTQ+ and girls’s illustration on the occasion in a press convention attended by Esports Insider.
Extra Aggressive Alternatives
On the press convention, McCabe reiterated to Esports Insider that everybody is welcome to compete on the Esports World Cup, no matter sexual orientation or gender.
“All people is welcome. Everybody who competes at EWC is welcome to the Kingdom. What Saudi Arabia is making an attempt to do to shift the tradition is to assist aggressive play,” he acknowledged.
In recent times, the Saudi Esports Federation has invested within the ladies’s esports business as a part of its Nationwide Gaming and Esports Technique. In consequence, the Saudi eLeague hosts regional ladies’s tournaments for quite a few titles, together with VALORANT and Overwatch 2.
“As for the tournaments we’ve got, we’d like to have extra aggressive tournaments for girls in EWC,” added McCabe.
“What we have to do is figure with publishers to construct the circuits and pathways for these competitions to get onto the large stage. We hope that we’ve got an increasing number of ladies’s competitions sooner or later.”
Whereas the Esports World Cup continues to reaffirm its stance on inclusivity, Saudi Arabia’s stance on LGBTQ+ communities nonetheless stays an space of concern. Homosexuality within the Kingdom is prohibited and punished, leading to backlash from a number of members of the neighborhood. In June 2025, Apex Legends participant Hambino refused to attend the ALGS Mid-Season Playoffs as a result of Kingdom’s human rights report and considerations for his or her security.
For the 2026 version of the Esports World Cup, Cell Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) will as soon as once more characteristic a devoted ladies’s match. The MLBB Girls’s Worldwide will see 16 groups from internationally competing for its $500,000 (~£372,939) prize pool and to be topped world champion.
The Significance Of Ecosystems
Secure esports ecosystems play a pivotal function in offering a platform for girls to compete in occasions for his or her respective titles. For a number of years, ESL Affect acted because the world’s greatest ladies’s Counter-Strike circuit, providing massive prize swimming pools and attracting main organisations.
Nonetheless, in October 2025, ESL suspended the circuit indefinitely, citing an unsustainable financial mannequin behind the choice. When requested concerning the potential for internet hosting a ladies’s Counter-Strike occasion as a part of EWC, Scheurmann revealed that extra must be performed to enhance stability.
“We can not carry ecosystems by themselves. Think about you’ve got a 3 or four-day match yearly, that’s not an ecosystem. It is advisable to give skilled gamers one thing to do all 12 months spherical.”
He continued: “If we see that there are ecosystems being constructed for girls, we’ll proceed to double down on these, however they should be present, and it might’t be solely us. If we see that they’re rising, we’re tremendous pleased to incorporate them or take into account them for inclusion sooner or later.”
“Hopefully, extra organisers create extra ladies’s tournaments for CS,” the Esports World Cup Basis’s Chief Video games Officer added.
“This may also assist us be sure that we’ll introduce ladies’s Counter-Strike esports.”
