22 teams earn qualification to the Rocket League Esports Nations Cup

Following the completion of the Esports Nations Cup (ENC) Regional Qualifiers for Rocket League, 22 further national teams have joined the team list for the main LAN event expected to take place in Riyadh in November. From July 17-19, the ENC Regional Qualifiers took place in six regions: Europe, North America, Middle East, South America, Africa, and Asia Pacific, with each region provided between three to four slots at the ENC Main Event. One slot was also offered to the highest-ranked Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member nation that didn’t qualify through the Middle East Qualifier as part of the ENC’s host region initiative.

These qualified teams join a collection of 24 national squads who already received direct invitations to the event based on the RLCS points accumulated by their three best players in 2026. Two wildcard slots now remain for the $1,320,000 prizepool event, which have been assigned to Rocket League Esports as ‘solidarity slots’. Eligible countries who have not already qualified for more than one title in the ENC can apply for these slots if Rocket League is their strongest competitive game.

The Rocket League Esports fandom are no strangers to national team events as the FIFAe World Cup, organized by the Saudi Esports Foundation in tandem with FIFA, has run in the previous two years, with a third edition already in motion in 2026. While the FIFAe World Cup will run an extra stage through August-September called the Continental Championships to narrow down teams to 24 slots for the World Finals, the ENC differs by allowing 48 national squads to compete on LAN in their inaugural Main Event.

While the national squads on offer over the weekend were of lesser quality to their already invited counterparts, a number of professionals, bubble players, and up-and-coming youngsters represented their countries in the Regional Qualifiers. 15-year-old Attila "bibbaba" Eötvös propelled Hungary to the main event without dropping a series, Gen.G Mobil1 Racing professional Kenneth "frosty" Walz helped Colombia make it through the upper bracket of the South American qualifier, while Ario "arju" Berdin lead a strong Italian roster on a lower bracket run with wins over Norway, Croatia, Sweden, and Switzerland. On the flipside, an Austrian team featuring an experienced core of Maurice "Yukeo" Weihs, Ivan "ivn" Sabri, and Nicolas "pzy" Steinhauser notably missed out on qualification following two losses to Czechia, while former Team Liquid star Bruno Alexandre "AcroniK." dos Santos Lopes fell short with Portugal.