League of Legends Joins Nations Cup

- The Esports Nations Cup is a new international, multi-game tournament organized by the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF), scheduled to debut in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in November 2026. The event will be held every two years and will feature national teams instead of professional organizations. - According to sources, League of Legends is expected to be one of the 16 titles featured in the inaugural tournament. This would mark the first time the game is included in a large-scale, nation-based global competition of this kind. - The tournament format for team-based games like League of Legends is expected to feature between 24 and 32 national teams. Qualification will be a hybrid model, with half the teams receiving direct invitations based on their players' global rankings and the other half emerging from regional qualifiers. - A key regulation for team composition is that a national roster cannot be made up entirely of players from a single professional team. For a 5v5 game, a maximum of three players can be from the same organization. - The EWCF has confirmed partnerships with several major game publishers for the Nations Cup, including Tencent, the parent company of League of Legends developer Riot Games. Riot Games and the EWCF have also entered into a three-year partnership for the broader Esports World Cup, which includes League of Legends. - While major international *League of Legends* competitions are typically club-based, such as the World Championship, there is a history of country-based tournaments, including the Asian Games and the World Cyber Games. - The total prize pool for the inaugural Esports Nations Cup is $20 million, which will be distributed across all 16 game titles. The organizers have stated there will be equal placement rewards across all games.