Media: Esports World Cup likely to take place in Paris
Esports World Cup 2026 is set to move away from Riyadh temporarily and according to a report from GamesBeat, The $75 million esports festival will take place in Paris this year due to ongoing conflict in the middle-east. With airlines cancelling flights in large numbers and tensions escalating by the day, the tournament organizer behind Esports World Cup has decided not to fly in esports entities from around the world to the middle-east at this point of time.
A couple of weeks back, the CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation had expressed the organization's intent towards hosting this year's Esports World Cup in Riyadh and hoped for de-escalations soon. "People obviously are more hesitant to book their travel. Though we’ve seen ticket sales pick up since the ceasefire", said Ralf Reichert in an interview with Time.
The alleged location shift comes almost two months ahead of the tournament's start date on 6th July. The event is set to run for seven weeks, hosting tournaments across 20+ esports titles. The Counter-Strike 2 tournament is scheduled for the final two weeks between 12th and 23rd August with a massive $2,000,000 USD prize pool. The tournament organizer has not made a public announcement yet regarding the location shift.
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