Why has the Esports World Cup moved to Paris?, 28/05/2026
Don’t mention the war 😬
We ask the Esports Foundation why it moved the Esports World Cup to Paris
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Hello VGIM-ers,
I’m hitting send on this morning’s newsletter from Hay-on-Wye.
The first date of the Power Play book tour kicked off with a great chat with Robert Nisbet at the Hay Festival yesterday.
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The big read - Why has the Esports World Cup moved to Paris?
Flashback: Last year, I had a chat with Mike McCabe, the Chief Operating Officer at what is now known as the Esports Foundation. I interviewed him for VGIM and Power Play about the Esports World Cup, the foundation’s flagship event, to understand its role within Saudi Arabia’s soft power strategy.
Lines to take: During our chat, I asked him whether the foundation would consider moving the tournament to another country or whether it was locked to Riyadh in an effort to entice tourists into town. The answer was a nuanced no. “Everything is possible from our perspective,” he said. “But it will be here this year [referring to 2025] and likely next year [discussing 2026 plans].”
Change of plans: So naturally, my interest was piqued by the announcement last week that the Esports World Cup was not returning to Riyadh in 2026. The tentpole event at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s esports strategy was instead moving to Paris from 6th July, drawing its dozens of video game tournaments, enticing thousands of players and lugging its $75m prize pot to the French capital.
It goes Macron and on and on: What’s behind the move? Why was France’s President Emmanuel Macron splattered all over the announcement images? And what does the move tell us about the future of the tournament and Saudi Arabia’s video game strategy? I caught up with Fabian Scheuermann, Chief Games Officer for the Esports Foundation, and a couple of VGIM-adjacent journalists to understand what this all means.
Avoiding a Strait answer
Getting on with it: At the start of the call, Scheuermann told me how unbelievably busy his year had been as a result of the move. So to spare his diary, I cut to the chase. Why was the Esports World Cup (also EWC for short) moving to Paris this year, ahead of the timeline seemingly outlined by McCabe last year?
Sticking to the plan? “As Mike rightfully said, the intent was always to travel”, Scheuermann started. “EWC is a platform. And we want to grow this platform not only from a regional perspective, but from a truly global perspective. That means we want to make sure that fans, publishers, and players can use this platform to the best extent. And we can do this only if we’re also rotating EWC. So, we were not looking to rotate this year already. But due to the regional situation, we accelerated that path. And Paris, specifically with the institutional support, was the perfect spot to go to.”
Safety first: ‘Regional situation’ clanged with me as soon as it was said. It was the same language used in the EWC’s press release to justify the move, a phrase designed to carefully ignore the impact of Donald Trump’s war against Iran on the region. I asked Scheuermann to clarify whether the move was related to the ongoing conflict in the Strait of Hormuz. “It is the general situation in the region, and we want to make sure that fans feel safe, and don’t even have to worry about it,” he said. “So, while Saudi Arabia is still very safe, we want to make sure that the fans – especially if they’re international – feel safe in that region.”
Subtext alert: Scheuermann was obviously seeking to be diplomatic over the ongoing situation, especially when the country’s head of state, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS, for short), is on the board of trustees. But for James Montague, sports journalist and author of Engulfed: How Saudi Arabia Bought Sport, and The World, the tournament’s relocation to Paris is inextricably linked to the aftershocks of the conflict and the uneasy ceasefire that followed.
Awkward truths: “The war with Iran has made Saudi Arabia, and to a certain extent the other Gulf states as well, rethink what their soft power investments are and what they hope to achieve,” he explained. “It was about creating a different story around their countries and nation-building projects in many ways and about attracting investment, attention and visitors. The war has really focused minds to say that you can have all of those things, but it is still a very dangerous neighbourhood. No matter what you invest in, no matter how many Formula 1 Grands Prix or Esports World Cups you host, you can’t change your geography.”
Macron has entered the lobby
Lobbying win: So with a Riyadh-based EWC being just a short drone flight away from an exceptionally narked off regional rival who deeply dislikes Saudi Arabia’s major military ally, the tournament had to move. But why Paris? Emmanuel Macron’s public backing for the esports industry put the French capital in pole position to snap up the tournament.
Pole position: “In 2022, Macron said esports is on their [the French government’s radar. And they have shown repeatedly that they support global tournaments and the best tournaments coming to Paris”, said Scheuermann. “When we were looking at different regions to pull off the EWC in a rotation, Paris very, very quickly was the favourite candidate, because the government instantly said, ' Look, we will help and support with all the important things.” This included practicalities like managing visa applications, a considerable burden for a tournament bringing thousands of athletes to a city for six weeks, and providing wider infrastructure support for the tournament. Scheuermann described the package provided by the French government as “unmatchable from our perspective.”
Esports Capital of the World: Paris’s strengths as a home for the EWC stretched beyond institutional support. “Within the esports community, it developed as the esports capital of Europe,” he said. “We have so many tournaments there. The Rocket League major just last weekend, we had Counter-Strike there, and Call of Duty is coming with a major. And it’s just a very esports-proven, very international city.” Scheuermann highlighted its wider strengths as a city, including its transport infrastructure, myriad event venues and ample accommodation for tourists, as further reasons for its selection.
On the ground reporting: VGIM received separate confirmation of Paris’s readiness as a host city for a major esports tournament from our freelancing friend Tom Regan. I DM’d him on Instagram after spotting that he had popped along to the Rocket League Major that Scheuermann referenced in our chat. He reported that the 25,000-seat venue for the major, which had been re-specced to hold 15,000 spectators to support a glitzy show, delivered a “very impressive” production. The ease with which he got to the venue, whisked across France via rail with nary a care in the world, contrasts with the challenge of coaxing journalists to Riyadh in the middle of Summer.
London calling?: And while Scheuermann sang Paris’s praises, he also indicated that it is unlikely to be the last time the cup is contested on foreign shores. “We want to make sure that the cities or the countries can actually achieve what we need to make this platform grow, and it doesn’t need to be a single location,” Scheuermann said, opening up the possibility of joint hosts of the cup. “But what we ultimately want is that we can achieve our targets of making this platform grow. So, yes, it could be multiple cities, it could be rotating. I wouldn’t say we have any restrictions to that, as long as the infrastructure and the operations and the fandom can be built.“ Could we see it hosted in a city like London or Shanghai? “Absolutely,” Scheuermann replied.
Soft power-ly does it
More questions: On this occasion, shifting the Esports World Cup to Paris made sense from both a safety perspective and on the basis that it could relatively easily – and incredibly willingly – put on a show. But does moving the Esports World Cup to Paris change its role within the esports ecosystem? And does its move from Riyadh say anything about Saudi Arabia’s appetite for backing big digital sporting events, or for its wider video game strategy?
Tourist destination: Scheuermann told me that the Foundation remains confident that the EWC will remain the central event in the global esports calendar in a new location. “While we already had a lot of global fans coming to Riyadh, of course, with Paris and a lot of tourists there are a lot of tourists there, especially in the July-August time. We’re expecting a very high diversity of fans coming to see the different tournaments.”
Centre of gravity: His confidence has been boosted by the reception to the global Road to the EWC tournament series, which puts leading esports teams into competitions in regions like Eastern Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia alongside traditional esports hubs. The tournament’s wider gravitational pull, powered by its $75m prize pool, the downstream support for hundreds of esports organisations through Foundation initiatives, and the ability to apply pressure on publishers to support competitive play due to the critical mass of the event, makes the EWC durable wherever it is hosted.
A genuine return on investment: Interestingly, Montague agrees that the competition is sustainable irrespective of the mood. In fact, he told me that the tournament’s move to Paris is not a sign of esports becoming a victim of growing Saudi disinterest in its sport strategy; it’s an attempt to retain its value. “The issue here is that esports isn’t like the other things we’ve seen [within Saudi Arabia’s sports portfolio],” he said. “LIV Golf, for instance, Saudi Arabia spent $5bn at least on something that wasn’t a success and didn’t achieve any of the aims of Vision 2030. These things were nebulous at best when it came to Vision 2030 and doesn’t move the needle when compared to Saudi GDP.”
Presidential Power Plays: ”Esports is different. It clearly does. It brings investment, it brings jobs for young Saudi people, and more was invested in the infrastructure around games than was made in all of its sports investments combined,” Montague continued. “The issue here was, can you really host an event when there is such instability in the Middle East. I don’t think you can. I think it’s an issue of safety for this year; Paris makes sense. But the fact that it was President Macron negotiating directly with MbS, who is a digital native and gamer, shows that it isn’t trying to downgrade the investment in esports; it’s actually trying to save it. It’s saying ok, this is going to Paris but we are very much still involved in this space.”
A durable soft power asset: So even though the Esports World Cup’s first foreign move may have happened earlier than expected, its success, or otherwise, is loaded with significance for Saudi Arabia’s soft power strategy. And with the country’s wider sporting endeavours crumbling away, a successful international EWC – backed by the French President, no less – would likely make it the central pillar of the country’s reputation-building project. That raises big questions now, and likely some even larger ones in the future if the French expedition proves to be a hit.
News in brief
Game on(line): Ukie has released a statement confirming it has submitted to the UK government’s consultation exploring the possibility of a social media ban for teens. In a LinkedIn post, the trade association stated that “video games are not social media. It went on to say that they “differ fundamentally in purpose, design, and impact”, that games “offer real, well-evidenced social and developmental benefit”, and that conflation with social media “inadvertently harms one of the UK’s most important creative industries.” Games definitely aren’t social media. But as one of the engines that drives it, the industry will need to show how effectively it is moderating its spaces to avoid getting hit in social media’s regulatory blowback.
Ball’s in motion: In a rare ‘not including this in the Moving On’ section, Xbox has hired Matthew Ball of That PowerPoint Presentation We All Read And Talk About At The Start Of The Year fame to head up its publishing push. It’s an eye-catching hire, which puts one of the industry’s biggest thinkers towards the top of one of its biggest companies.
Broaden your Horizon: The European Game Developer Federation has published a lengthy and handy guide to a series of European funding calls through Creative Europe and the Horizon research programme. Creative Europe has funding open for narrative game projects, something that can be tapped by companies based in EU member states or a surprisingly broad list of partners (hello, Armenia). Perhaps more interestingly, Horizon Europe has funding open for video game researchers thinking about issues like media literacy, protecting democracy and fostering creative alliances. That funding should be open to researchers in the UK following its return to the programme earlier this year.
That’s a big number: HoYoVerse, creators of Genshin Impact, is reportedly set to invest *checks notes* $14.6bn into artificial intelligence tooling over the next three years. A report in the Chinese outlet Gamelook, which has also been written up on GI Biz, said that the company’s founder Liu Wei outlined the vision, detailing plans to build its own AI infrastructure from scratch to avoid leaning on external models. VGIM says: That’s a lorra money, lads.
Unfortunate Destiny: And finally, the last rites are being read for Destiny 2 as it prepares to shuffle off this mortal (live-service-led) coil from the beginning of next month. Dom Peppiatt at Eurogamer has written an excellent eulogy for the shooter, charting its unsteady start as a full-blown Destiny sequel, its sudden ascent to the heights of multiplayer shootybang action, and its steady decline as community goodwill evaporated in the face of strange corporate decisions.
Moving on
Caroline Miller is stepping back from frontline operations at UK PR firm Indigo Pearl as it merges with Fortyseven Communications. Craig Sinel has relocated to London to lead the new 47 office, with Anita Wong stepping into Caroline’s formidable (and fabulous) shoes…Aisha Ahmed has been appointed Influencer Marketing Manager at FORMAT Group…And we missed this a couple of weeks ago, but Maarten de Koning was appointed Chief Commercial Officer at People Can Fly…
Jobs ahoy
Great Ormond Street is hiring a Senior Gaming Manager to support its fundraising efforts…Hangar 13 has a post open for a Lead Producer…The NFL has a post for Senior Manager, International Game Development open in London…Nintendo is hiring a Senior Manager, Central Communications, in its office in Richmond…And intriguingly, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has a post open for a Serious Game and Policy Game Specialist…
Events and conferences
Power Play Book Tour, UK - Multiple dates, May-July
Games Industry Law Summit, Berlin - 2nd-4th June
Summer Games Fest, Los Angeles - 5th-8th June
Develop, Brighton - 14th-16th July
VGIM Business Breakfast, Brighton - 15th July
Games of the week
007: First Light - Be stirred (not shaken) by IO Interactive’s twist on the James Bond formula, available across all platforms.
Crashout Crew - Co-op forklifting party game from the team behind Peak crashes onto Steam today.
Pictonico - Nintendo’s Wario Ware-esque party game that uses your photos to power the play lands somewhat intriguingly on app stores this week.
Before you go…
Could political instability in the UK cause problems for the video game industry? Mickey Carroll from Sky News asked the question.
Your humble writer did his best to answer it.
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