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Is an EWC CS Major on the Horizon? EWC Media Rumble Takeaways 2026
Strafe Esports was recently invited to attend a media event organized by the Esports World Cup (EWC). In it, an open discussion was held around EWC 2026 and beyond, answering some of the bigger questions surrounding one of the world’s biggest emerging esports tournament organizers.
The event was attended by Mike McCabe, Deputy CEO and COO of the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF), as well as Fabian Scheuermann, Chief Games Officer.
The EWC is Becoming a Goliath in the Esports Space
During the event, strong growth was reported across all key metrics including the EWC product, marketing, and visitor experience. The most notable improvement came from marketing, which reported 888 million engagements across all social media platforms, a 393% improvement over the previous year and 9.6 billion social media impressions, a similar meteoric 250% improvement over the year prior.
While fan sentiments continue to be mixed due to the EWC’s strong ties to the Saudi government, it is undeniable that their efforts are finding success, and that swiftly, they are carving out a place for themselves within the esports ecosystem. And that is unsurprising.
The EWC has strategically positioned itself as a Mecca for esports fans globally, offering a festival of numerous esports titles. From the widely popular DOTA 2 to the lesser celebrated Sim Racing, there’s something for every gamer which adds to the allure.
“What we were really, really heartened with was the social engagement though. And that’s where we really focused on the content that we were creating, really telling the personal stories that were going to drive that engagement and that social reach, especially when we were targeting new markets. And we are starting to focus on really reaching into the non-core esports audience to get into that more mainstream audience.”
In 2025, Chess made its first debut at the EWC, marking a historic step that brought one of history’s oldest game into the fold alongside its modern counterparts.
Ambitions for 2026 and Beyond
During the event, Fabian outlined the EWC’s ambition to ‘capture all important competitive titles globally.’ Moreover, he stressed that their intention was to retain the titles they already boasted in their catalogue to ease the clubs’ planning cycle and allow for real investment into said titles with the accompanying stability.
In 2026, the EWC’s focus now turns to co-hosting (in their words). Working with the publishers, the EWC aims to integrate into the official esports circuits, functioning as ‘one key stop or true Tier 1 event’.
For Rainbow Six Siege, it has already been reported that the EWC in 2026 will host the Mid-Season Championship, with the winner receiving a direct invite to the Six Invitational later the same year.
As of the time of this writing, 24 game titles have been confirmed for EWC 2026:
| Game | Event |
| Trackmania | |
| VALORANT | |
| Dota 2 | |
|
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves |
|
| Apex Legends | ALGS: 2026 Split 1 Playoffs |
| Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | MLBB Mid Season Cup 2026 |
| Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | MLBB Women's Invitational 2026 |
| Honor of Kings | |
| Free Fire | |
| Fortnite | Reload Elite Series Championship |
| Rocket League | |
| League of Legends | |
|
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 |
|
| Chess | |
| PUBG Mobile | PUBG Mobile World Cup 2026 |
| Overwatch 2 | OWCS Midseason Championship 2026 |
| Rainbow Six Siege | Mid Season Championship 2026 |
| Call of Duty: Warzone | |
| EA SPORTS FC 26 | |
| Teamfight Tactics | |
| PUBG | |
| Tekken 8 | |
| Crossfire | |
| Street Fighter 6 | |
| Counter-Strike 2 |
Chess To Return in 2026
During the Q&A portion of the event, it was asked on the performance of Chess as one of the EWC’s titles as well as their view on its addition to their portfolio:
With Chess returning in 2026, are you guys viewing the mindsport as a permanent pillar of the EWC? Or was it just a one-off experiment to broaden the demographics?
"We were really heartened, and it was an experiment, absolutely. Chess hasn’t historically been in endemic esports as one of the titles people see there but we really felt strongly that it was an opportunity, and it deserves its place there. When we look at the scale of the digital chess community around the world, and how it continues to grow, then from our perspective, it was worth that investment.
The tournament exceeded our expectations pretty much at every level. I think we wished halfway through that we had a bigger venue. Magnus wished that we had a bigger venue as well. And so, they will have one this year, and it definitely wasn't one-and-done. It's something that we're continuing to invest in, and working with the chess community, at how we can engage deeper into that community. And I think there's more of the traditional esports community who are interested in watching it, who have also picked up chess over the course of the 12 months.
So, we're very much looking forward to year two, and I think a lot of the clubs have seen how it went and have started to pick up and build their own rosters, so that they compete on the biggest stage.’ ‘It's not like we're not only continuing, but chess is one of the games that we really feel helps us grow our targets, which is not only to the endemic esports community, but to everything outside. And traditionally, chess is played by so many people, even like pros of traditional esports play chess in their free time. And we believe this really helps connecting the different pieces, and connecting the different communities, because everyone can relate, or a lot of people can relate to chess. And that's why we're continuing also to double down on chess.com, the partnership, and not only for this year, but for years to come."
Is the EWC Targeting a CS Major in the Future?
When asked, the executives from EWC affirmed that while hosting a Major was certainly something that they found alluring, it was not a priority for them currently. ‘We believe top quality Counter-Strike can be done without majors,’ said Fabian.
"We think the EWC stands on its own and can also attract top players because of the prize pool. Because of the tournament regulations about how we treat players and our player-first approach, we think it actually makes it very interesting for CS players to come.”
Fabian also highlighted how the EWC believed the addition of the other titles along with the excitement around the EWC in fact levelled up their Counter-Strike tournament to a point where it could remain relevant for many years with or without the added prestige of being a Major.
Other Esports TOs Not the Primary Competitors
Lofty aspirations for the EWC. During the event, they confirmed that one of the core objectives of their foundation was to ‘support the esports ecosystem and drive growth across esports.’
‘We’re not looking to compete from an event standpoint,’ said McCabe. ‘Our targets are absolutely real world, traditional sports. Absolutely, those are the people that we’re looking at and benchmarking against in every way. And they’ve had decades, if not longer, to be able to establish.’
He continued: ‘what we’re looking at is how we can build the fandom that we see in within traditional sports and have that be operating at scale within the world of esports.’
Expanding the Roster of Teams Attending
With regards to opening their doors to more teams competing at the EWC tournaments, the executives confirmed that it was something the foundation were looking towards, but also noted that the density of the EWC calendar meant that the challenge grew in difficulty and complexity with each year.
"So, looking forward into the future, we are working more with publishers to achieve that because it's something we want, it's something that the publishers want. And it's something that the community wants, especially if we talk BO1s and all those super hardcore knockouts. We want to see more of that, but we want to see it with a broader spectrum of teams. So, it's an ambition. Some teams will get it this year. Some games will get it this year. We will announce more around it and the details for every game. But it give us a little bit more time to reach that optimal state for every game."
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Featured Image Credit: Esports World Cup Foundation
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