Esports World Cup 2026 Rocket League teams, format, dates, schedule & prizepool

The 2026 Esports World Cup is in full motion with the third edition of the Rocket League Esports event now next up on the docket, promising to be an enticing warm up for the RLCS 2026 World Championship in September. For the first time, the event is taking place in Paris, having been relocated to the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from its base in Riyadh due to the difficult geopolitical situation in the Middle East. The event is funded and supported by the Esports Foundation, a non-profit organization managed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment fund. It is built from the foundations of Gamers8, a tournament series that hosted two international events for Rocket League from 2022-2023. Karmine Corp and Team BDS were previously crowned champions of the event in 2025 and 2024 respectively.

In this edition, the EWC will be providing a £1,125,000 prizepool to the esport split between 32 teams competing in a Last Chance Qualifier and a Main Event. The tournament will begin with the LCQ, a LAN qualifier running from August 08-10 with open registration to up to 128 teams from around the world, who will fight for one qualification slot and their share of the $100,000 qualifier prizepool.

One advancing team from the LCQ will then join another 15 teams from seven regions who were automatically invited to the Main Event based on their RLCS ranking. This portion of the tournament will take place from August 12-16, where the teams will compete in a GSL style group stage featuring two groups of eight. All the upper bracket matches will be best-of-five but when a team faces the prospect of elimination in the lower bracket, they will play a best-of-seven. Four teams from each group will then advance to a single-elimination playoffs where all the series apart from the third-place decider will be best-of-seven. The grand finals are scheduled for 19:00 CEST on August 16.

Each region has received a designated amount of direct invites to the event based on their standing in the RLCS. One slot remains for the team that advances from the EWC LCQ.

Karmine Corp, who are the returning champions from EWC 2025, will kick off proceedings on August 12 at 13:00 CEST when they face Wildcard in Group B. Group A will start when NRG faces TSM at 16:20 CEST.

The winner of the EWC will receive $400,000 from the prizepool and earn their organization 1000 Club Points in the Club Championship. The player who wins MVP for the event will earn a bonus of $25,000. Another $100,000 will be split between the teams in the EWC LCQ, with $10,000 going to the runners-up, equalling the money earnt by placing 13th-16t in the Main Event.