Image credit: International Esports Federation (IESF)
The World Esports Championship, a nation-based esports tournament, will take place in Saudi Arabia in 2024, the International Esports Federation (IESF) has announced.
The host city has not yet been revealed. IESF did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
The host location announcement for next year’s event was first made live during the closing ceremony of World Esports Championship 2023, which took place in Isai, Romania between August 26th-September 3rd.
The World Esports Championship is a global esports tournament, running since 2009, where national teams (as decided by IESF’s member national esports federations) compete to be crowned national champions.
Despite growing ties, the move to hold the World Esports Championship in Saudi Arabia is likely to prove controversial given concerns over the country’s human rights record, particularly around LGBTQ+ and women’s rights. Some commentators have described Saudi Arabia’s actions in esports as ‘esportswashing’.
2023’s edition of WEC included tournaments in CS:GO (with Open and Women’s categories), Dota 2, eFootball, Tekken 7, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG Mobile.
The event saw very low viewership in flagship titles CS:GO (13,600 peak viewers for Open, 15,300 for Women’s tournaments) and Dota 2 (21,800 peak viewers), though managed a massive 700,00 peak in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
In June, local Romanian media reported multiple allegations of shady activity surrounding the local Isai sports body and the IESF, including the payment of the World Esports Championship 2023 licence fee into a newly-established North Macedonian subsidiary rather than IESF headquarters. An IESF spokesperson has previously told The Esports Advocate that it strongly denies any wrongdoing.
Jake Nordland
Jake is Esports Insider’s Features and Trending News Editor. Part of the ESI team since early 2021, he’s interested in politics, education and sustainability in esports.
