VALORANT unveiled for Esports Nations Cup 2026, with dates, format and more

The Esports Foundation (EF) has confirmed on Friday VALORANT’s inclusion among the 16 titles featured at the inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC) 2026, scheduled to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. From November 8 to 15, 2026, 32 national teams, each composed of the five best players from their respective countries, will compete for the first ENC title in a setting that, at the national-team level, reopens the long-standing discussion surrounding which region truly sits at the top of the game.

The competition will unfold in two stages: a 32-team group phase, split into four groups of eight and played in a round-robin format, followed by a 16-team single-elimination playoff bracket. All group-stage matches will be best-of-one before the tournament moves to best-of-three series in the playoffs, except the grand final, scheduled for November 15, which will be played as a best-of-five.

The 32 available slots will be allocated through three entry routes, with 16 direct invitations, 14 places earned through regional online qualifiers, and two wildcards. Direct invites will be determined via a newly introduced VALORANT National Team Rankings system, built from results across regional and international VALORANT Champions Tour competitions. Points accrued in those events will be distributed equally among participating club teammates, after which each nation will aggregate the totals of the five players listed on its submitted roster. The ranking cut-off date has been set for June 21, 2026.

For the other nations, the regional qualifiers will run from June 26 to 28, 2026, using online double-elimination brackets, with two slots awarded to each of the following regions: North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and Southeast Asia plus Oceania.

Conceived as a biennial national-team competition, the Esports Nations Cup aims to establish a recurring, structured platform for national representation in esports, complementing an ecosystem traditionally organized around clubs. The Esports Foundation added that further information regarding ENC will be released in the coming weeks through the official channels of both the competition and the Foundation.

In addition, the Esports Foundation, which manages both the EWC and the ENC, has revealed the rules for team formation. No nation may send more than three players from the same club to Saudi Arabia. For example, in League of Legends, T1’s full roster could not represent South Korea, and KOI could not send four of its players to represent Spain. Each nation is also allowed two substitutes, and the club restriction applies to them as well, even if they do not ultimately play in the tournament.

For players and their clubs, the ENC has specified that, depending on the game, this rule will come into effect between three and six months before the qualifiers and remain in place until the end of the tournament. It is worth noting that the overall event regulations appear to allow multiple teams from the same country to participate in the qualifiers, although only one can compete in the main event.

Players must hold the passport of the nation they represent for at least one full year before the roster lock, set for April 30 at 11:59 PM AST. For players holding multiple nationalities, the EWCF states that they may represent only one country throughout the entire process. Coaches must be selected before March 29, 2026.

National organizations, chosen through ENC applications, therefore have only two months to appoint their coach and select the seven players who will represent them, even though the competition will not take place until November and the qualifiers will not begin until the start of summer. Player age limits range from 13 to 18, depending on the game, though this has not yet been confirmed for VALORANT.