Sources: League of Legends set to join the Esports Nations Cup lineup in 2026

According to sources close to Sheep Esports, League of Legends will be part of the Esports Nations Cup, a global competition that will take place from November 2 to 29 in Saudi Arabia. A younger sister of the Esports World Cup, the ENC is fundamentally different, bringing together national teams from around the world rather than esports organizations. This will be the first large-scale occasion where LoL competes in a nation-based format, a setup long awaited by fans and that Riot Games has been thinking about for years.

The exact dates of the competition are not yet known, but it is expected to last for a week—most likely after Worlds ends—and the ENC has already revealed many details about the qualification and the format for the other titles. Like VALORANT, which Sheep Esports recently reported on, LoL will be one of 16 games featured during this month-long event, where countries worldwide, organized through “national partners,” will attempt to send their best players for each game. While not officially the Olympic Games of esports, this format closely resembles them in structure.

For Riot Games’ MOBA, it seems likely that between 24 and 32 national teams will participate, based on what has already been announced for Counter-Strike 2, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Rainbow Six Siege. Whatever the final number, half of the participants will be directly invited. Following the pattern of other announced titles, these invitations will be based on players’ annual performance. In short, the more top-ranked players a nation has on the global leaderboard, according to their teams’ results, the higher the chance of a direct invitation. This ranking will be finalized during the summer, just before the various qualification tournaments, whose dates are not yet known.

The remaining spots will then be decided through continental qualifiers and wildcard slots (two for a 24-team format). These qualifiers often differ depending on the game and the active regions, but they could simply be divided by continent, as with Rainbow Six, the latest 5v5 title announced at the time of writing. One potential question remains for Sub-Saharan Africa, which is often overlooked in qualifiers or combined with North Africa, or the broader MENA region.

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, 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 prior to 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 LoL.