The Esports World Cup Foundation
has just announced that
Counter-Strike 2 will join the lineup of games featured at the
Esports Nations Cup 2026. For its inaugural edition, scheduled from November 2 to 29, the ENC aims to establish itself as the first major large-scale national team competition, bringing together teams from around the world across 16 different titles. Valve’s FPS is the seventh game revealed, following
Mobile Legends, Dota 2, Fatal Fury, Trackmania, chess, and
Honor of Kings.
The CS2 competition, set to take place from November 10 to 15, will see 24 nations face off in a format designed for intensity. The group stage will begin with a round-robin format, with teams split into four groups of six. After these single-map matches (BO1), the top four nations from each group will advance to a single-elimination playoff bracket. While the playoff rounds will be played as BO3s, the Grand Final will raise the stakes with a BO5 marathon to crown the world champions.
Merit- and ranking-based qualification
Reaching the final stage in Riyadh will require a demanding path. Nation selection will rely on a new CS2 National Team Ranking system, based on players’ points in the Valve Ranking System (VRS) as of June 1, 2026. For territories not covered by this ranking, FACEIT Elo points will serve as a secondary mechanism.
The qualification process is split into two key stages:
- National Qualifiers (July 6 to 19): Organized across 96 countries, they will allow more than 15,000 players and 3,000 teams to compete. Each nation will qualify its best roster for the next stage.
- Regional Qualifiers: National winners will face each other in double-elimination brackets spread across ten geographical zones (Western Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, etc.). In total, only 24 nations will secure their ticket to Saudi Arabia.
Strict rules to promote diversity
To ensure the truly national nature of the event, the ENC enforces strict roster composition rules. Each lineup must be made up exclusively of citizens of the country represented. In addition, to preserve competitive balance and avoid simply seeing professional clubs compete under a national flag, a limit is set: no more than three players from the same professional team may appear on a single national roster.
Classified as a VRS Tier 2 event, ENC 2026 will also allow clubs to earn world ranking points if their players reach the later stages of the tournament. After the triumph of the Mongols of The MongolZ at EWC 2025, this 2026 edition of the ENC is already shaping up to be a key event in redefining the global hierarchy of Valve’s FPS.
It should be noted that Russia and Belarus, in line with International Olympic Committee regulations, are banned from team competitions but not from individual events, with the EWCF largely basing its rules on those of the IOC. As with the
Olympic Games, Taiwan is therefore expected to compete under the name Chinese Taipei.
