It took until Wednesday, March 25, for the
Esports Foundation to complete its lengthy process of selecting national partners and managers. With more than 600 applications, the organizer of this Olympic-style esports event had to appoint recognized representatives across nations, a task now completed for around a hundred countries. The competition, set to take place in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, from November 2 to 26, is expected to bring together thousands of players from around the world for a nation-based tournament of unprecedented scale, featuring nearly 16 different titles.
For France, as
Sheep Esports previously posted,
Bora “YellOwStar” Kim, a historic figure in European League of Legends esports, will be responsible for building the French delegation, from selecting coaches to forming the teams alongside them. The same applies to Christian Lenz, team manager for Eintracht Frankfurt’s esports division in Germany; Andreas Elversøe, current manager of MASONIC’s Counter-Strike roster for Denmark; and Maral Manlai, current Chief Growth Officer of the Mongolian Esports Association, among many others.
A wave of alliances across major esports nations
Several well-known organizations have also committed as national team partners in their respective countries. In South America, whether in Brazil or Argentina with 9z, ShideN, and KRÜ, organizations have found strong incentives to collaborate, setting aside their usual rivalries and in-game clashes. The same can be seen in Chile with LEVIATAN, which has committed to supporting the local delegation, as well as Team Liquid in the Netherlands, Heroic in Norway, Shifters in Switzerland, and Team Nigma in the United Arab Emirates.
Other notable alliances are behind successful bids, including the newly formed USA Esports, which brings together a large majority of the country’s organizations such as 100 Thieves, Dignitas, TSM, Spacestation Gaming, FlyQuest, Cloud9, NRG, and many others. A similar dynamic can be observed in Spain, as previously reported by Sheep Esports, with KOI, GiantX, Team Heretics, FC Barcelona Esports, and UCAM, as well as in China with organizations like All Gamers, Anyone’s Legends, Bilibili Gaming, and Trace Esports supporting the national bid. The same applies in Italy, where DNSTY, NOVO Esports, HBMLE, and Reply Totem have united behind the Italian Interactive Digital Entertainment Association for this project.
A short calendar
Crazy Raccoon, DFM, Fennel, QT Dig, Reject, Riddle, SCARZ, VARREL, and ZETA DIVISION have also joined forces in Japan through their NESTA alliance, supporting the bid of JESU, which already manages the Japanese delegation for the Asian Games. Unsurprisingly, KeSPA has been selected in South Korea, one of the countries where structured national esports representation is most advanced. To round out this list, SAW is supporting the Portuguese bid, ENCE the Finnish one, and Fnatic the group representing the United Kingdom.
The Esports Foundation is indeed drawing heavily from the rules of the International Olympic Committee for a large part of its regulations, including the political constraints that come with it. As such, Taiwan is only represented under the name Chinese Taipei, while Russia and Belarus are, for now, banned from all team competitions following the war in Ukraine.
For all these national managers and partners, the work has already begun but will need to accelerate rapidly in the coming days. They have until the end of March, less than a week at the time of writing, to select and have approved the coaches for each title in which their nations intend to compete. As for the various rosters, the deadline is set for the end of April.
