Abhay Singh
The esports industry is aiming to revive its peak, which it achieved during covid-19, with the announcement of the first Esports World Cup, featuring 21 video games and a £49 million prize pool.
The Olympic Esports Games will be introduced in Saudi Arabia in 2025, but will exclude popular games like Counter-Strike 2 and Call Of Duty. The Esports World Cup, halfway through its eight-week course, is focusing on bringing the sport back to its peak.
GameCentral interviewed CEOs Ralf Reichert and Alban Dechelotte to discuss the significance of these events and the necessary steps to revive esports.
‘“As a non-profit foundation our mandate is to leapfrog the industry,”
Ralf Reichert, Esports World Cup’s CEO, said ‘As a non-profit foundation our mandate is to leapfrog the industry, We built the Esports World Cup around four building blocks: the best games, the best clubs, life-changing prize money for the players, and an eight week extraordinary gaming and esports festival.’
He also commented on why Esports has not reached its potential yet. He said ‘The esports industry has an amazing landscape of tournaments, but it has always been very focused on individual games and their respective communities. But if you look deeply, they kind of lack a uniting purpose beyond differentiation across the games they are in. We realised that we wanted to bring this to a scale similar to the largest traditional sports events around the world, creating something that unites the industry under a single competitive umbrella.’
Dechelotte believes hosting the Esports World Cup in Riyadh and promoting diverse game types will accelerate the growth of the sport
The G2 CEO, Dechelotte, who is also on the advisory board for the Olympic Esports Games, identifies the Esports World Cup and the upcoming Olympic gaming event as crucial competitions for reaching a wider audience.
He said ‘We’ll have the opportunity to watch national teams compete against each other for the first time ever in a wide range of esports games, creating an experience unlike anything we’ve seen before. And with the Esports World Cup they have the opportunity to tune into an event and experience a wide range of games to see what they might be interested in that they haven’t seen before. This mainstream visibility will open the door to allow new audiences to get involved in the world of esports and see how great our community is.’
Alban Dechelotte believes hosting the Esports World Cup in Riyadh will accelerate the growth of the sport by allowing various games to compete, including big-name titles like League Of Legends, Counter-Strike 2, and Fortnite, as well as lesser-known titles like Rennsport and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Honor Of Kings.
He commented ‘It also provides a huge platform for smaller gaming titles that don’t have the benefit of large-scale season-led tournaments, and will encourage game publishers to invest in community building, ultimately leading to more innovation in esports and gaming. MENA [Middle East and North Africa] is also the fastest growing region for esports and gaming, especially when it comes to players and fans. It’s an opportunity for the esports industry to engage with new fans and help shape the future of esports and gaming with new audiences.’
The Esports World Cup’s £49 million prize pool attracts the world’s biggest players and teams. Reichert said that the sum was possible due to host nation fees and sponsorship deals with Saudi Telecom, Qiddiya, Jameel Motorsport, Sony, and PepsiCo.
CEO Reichert did ot specify about future Esports World Cup editions, including whether they will always be held in Riyadh and if they’re planned for next year.
He added ‘We always envisioned the Esports World Cup as an annual event, and our plans haven’t changed. We want the Esports World Cup to always showcase the world’s best players and clubs competing for life-changing prizes across the most popular games. I can’t wait for everyone to see what we have planned and to speak about it soon.
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