A few days after unveiling a first wave of information about the
Esports Nations Cup, the
Esports World Cup Foundation has continued its communication by publishing
the event’s full roadmap. This schedule outlines the entire process, from applications to the finals planned for November 2026 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
A three-phase roadmap
The roadmap presented by the EWFC is structured around three main pillars: the selection process, announcements related to the competition, and the competition itself. On the process side, applications to become a national partner are already open with the organization and will remain so until the end of February. National managers will select the coaches between March and April, followed by the formation of national rosters by those same coaches until May.
The ENC Calendar - Credit: EWCF
Announcements will be staggered throughout the year, running until mid-August. The 16 selected titles and the format will be revealed between late January and mid-February, while national partners will be announced in March. Official coaches will then be confirmed in April, with national rosters unveiled in June once they have been selected. The full list of nations taking part in the ENC will finally be revealed in August, once direct invitations and the various qualifiers around the world have been set. The different groups and brackets will be announced in October, just before the competition begins.
Open qualifiers from June
The competition phase, the one that matters most to the scene, will begin in June with regional qualifiers running through September at the rate of one to two weekends per title. In parallel, direct invitations will be handed out over the same period, based on the performances of each nation’s players during the esports season, a point that was discussed in detail in the previous article on the topic.
As a reminder, as detailed a few days ago on Sheep Esports, the competition will feature 16 games spread over four weeks, with 24 to 48 national lineups per team title and 32 to 128 players for individual disciplines. Teams will be required to field players signed to different organizations.
The Esports Nations Cup finals will take place in November 2026 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Positioned as the largest national team competition ever held in esports, the event is set to return every two years, rotating between different host cities.
