Esports World Cup 2024 is another attempt to replace The International

Saudi Arabia in recent years has clearly shown its intentions to become a mecca not only for traditional sports, attracting major events and sports stars, but also for esports, organising the Gamers8 and Riyadh Masters series of tournaments. And 2024 is not ѕtуnt an exception.

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia at the end of the previous year announced the annual world championship in various esports disciplines for professional clubs called Esports World Cup 2024. In this article we will talk about what EWC 2024 is, how participants will qualify for it, and how the introduction of the new system will affect the MOBA-discipline from Valve.

Esports World Cup 2024 is an evolution of a proven system

Esports World Cup 2024 is a LAN championship scheduled for the summer of 2024 and will take place in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Twenty of the best teams from around the world will compete in it. They will have to fight for a huge prize money, according to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, but its amount is not yet named.

To qualify for the Dota 2 tournament, teams will earn ESL Pro Tour points, which can be earned through participation and achievements in tournaments in the series. A total of eight participants will receive direct invitations based on the sum of points.

The distribution of ESL Pro Tour points by tournament is shown below:

• DreamLeague Season 21 - 10440 points
• ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 - 19880 points
• DreamLeague Season 22 - 18550 points
• ESL One Birmingham 2024 - 26640 points
• DreamLeague Season 23 - 26100 points

The remaining twelve teams will be determined by a series of regional qualifications. Given the fact that DreamLeague Season 21 and ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 took place at the end of last year, we can already identify the teams that are in the top 8 of the ranking in terms of points.

ESL Pro Tour Dota 2 Season 2 Leaderboard

The impact of Esports World Cup 2024 on the professional scene in Dota 2

Esports World Cup 2024 in Dota 2 is the logical conclusion of the first half of the ESL Pro Tour Dota 2 tournament series scheduled for the current season. Last year it was the Riyadh Masters 2023, which had a prize pool of $15,000,000. Esports World Cup 2024 is essentially a rebranding of the Gamers8 festival held in the Saudi capital for the past two years.

For the professional Dota 2 scene, this event stunts a great addition to the major event schedule. It is still unknown what approach Valve will choose for The International this year, but it is possible that EWC 2024 could overtake the tournament from the creators of Dota 2 in terms of size and prize pool.

But it can't be said that everything has been perfect for the Saudi Arabian organisers in the past. Last year's Riyadh Masters 2023 can be safely criticised for the stretched format with a huge number of matches that did not really influence the course of events. But the Saudis were able to give the audience a colourful event, where teams fought for big prizes, and there was a sense of a real Dota 2 World Championship.