On the occasion of its Esports Festival on the Champs-Élysées, held as part of the
Esports World Cup in Paris, the Saudi foundation unveiled the French national esports team's jersey, which will be worn during the
Esports Nations Cup this November. Designed by adidas, the
ENC's official apparel partner for all participating nations, the jersey features France's traditional national colors and will be worn by the country's qualified teams and players throughout the event, taking place from November 2 to 29. It is the first to be unveiled.
It was therefore Bora "
YellOwStaR" Kim, manager of the French national team, who took to the Champs-Élysées on Sunday, August 2, to unveil the jersey. Also in attendance were Axel "
Vatira" Touret,
Rocket League player for Karmine Corp; Brice "
Brice" Masson,
EA SPORTS FC player; Gwendal "
Gwen" Duparc,
Trackmania player for All Gamers; and Jonathan "
TakaS" Paupard,
VALORANT player for Mandatory, all of whom have qualified to represent France at the Esports Nations Cup.
This jersey, like those of the other participating nations, will be available for purchase on the
competition's website. If you'd like to buy one, you can enter the country you're interested in and your email address to be notified when it goes on sale. Notably, alongside the jersey, a jacket was also unveiled on stage. However, no details were provided regarding its availability, potential sale, or intended use.
France set to compete in at least 13 titles at ENC26
At the moment, with the final qualifier for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang yet to be played, France is set to compete in at least 13 of the tournament's 16 disciplines. Aside from Dota 2, where the French team finished third in the qualifier, just one win short of qualification, and PUBG: Battlegrounds, France has either qualified or received a direct invitation for every title. With that result, the country currently sits tied for second place with China, behind only the United States, which is, for now, qualified for every discipline.
As mentioned previously, there were two ways to qualify: either by receiving a direct berth based on players' results throughout the year or by winning the continental qualifiers, which, for France, generally featured Western European nations. The latter applied to
Counter-Strike 2, where France secured one of the top two first qualifying spots,
PUBG Mobile, where it won the qualifier; and
VALORANT. In a mixed scenario, France earned one directly qualified representative in Chess and one in
Trackmania, while also having another player qualify through the European qualifier in both disciplines.
In the more common scenario, France received direct invitations. This was notably the case in
Rocket League, thanks to its first place in the overall ranking created by the tournament organizers, and in
Rainbow Six Siege, where it finished second.
