GameCentral talks to Esports World Cup CEO Ralf Reichert and G2 boss Alban Dechelotte, about their attempt to unite the sport and ‘leapfrog the industry’.
There is a new push, in the industry, to bring esports back to the heights it reached during the Covid pandemic, with the recent annoucement of the first Esports World Cup – which boasts competitions across 21 video games and a £49 million prize pool.
The Olympic Esports Games is also being introduced for the first time in 2025, in Saudi Arabia. But it will be without most of the more popular titles, as games that show ‘visible violence’, like Counter-Strike 2 and Call Of Duty, won’t be included.
That’s not the case at the Esports World Cup though, which is now halfway through its eight week course, also in Saudi Arabia. GameCentral spoke to the event’s CEO, Ralf Reichert, and G2 Esports’ CEO Alban Dechelotte, about what these two events mean for the sport and what is needed to bring it back to its peak again.
‘As a non-profit foundation our mandate is to leapfrog the industry,’ Reichert says.
‘We built the Esports World Cup around four building blocks: the best games, the best clubs, life-changing prize money for the players, and an eight week extraordinary gaming and esports festival.’
Part of why esports hasn’t reached its potential yet, the Esports World Cup CEO suggests, is that competitions are scattered with no unifying purpose.
‘The esports industry has an amazing landscape of tournaments, but it has always been very focused on individual games and their respective communities.
‘But if you look deeply, they kind of lack a uniting purpose beyond differentiation across the games they are in. We realised that we wanted to bring this to a scale similar to the largest traditional sports events around the world, creating something that unites the industry under a single competitive umbrella,’ the Esports World Cup CEO says.
Dechelotte, the CEO of esports organisation G2, who is also on the advisory board of the Olympic Esports Games, mentions both the Esports World Cup and next year’s Olympic gaming event as important competitions to reach a wider audience.
‘We’ll have the opportunity to watch national teams compete against each other for the first time ever in a wide range of esports games, creating an experience unlike anything we’ve seen before.
‘And with the Esports World Cup they have the opportunity to tune into an event and experience a wide range of games to see what they might be interested in that they haven’t seen before. This mainstream visibility will open the door to allow new audiences to get involved in the world of esports and see how great our community is.’
Dechelotte believes hosting the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, and allowing different types of games to compete, will help the sport as a whole to grow faster.
Big hitters such as League Of Legends, Counter-Strike 2, and Fortnite are joined by less known games such as Rennsport and mobile titles Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Honor Of Kings at this year’s event.
‘It also provides a huge platform for smaller gaming titles that don’t have the benefit of large-scale season-led tournaments, and will encourage game publishers to invest in community building, ultimately leading to more innovation in esports and gaming.
‘MENA [Middle East and North Africa] is also the fastest growing region for esports and gaming, especially when it comes to players and fans. It’s an opportunity for the esports industry to engage with new fans and help shape the future of esports and gaming with new audiences,’ Dechelotte says.
An important reason why the Esports World Cup has been able to attract the biggest players and teams in the world is its towering £49 million prize pool.
That number was reached with the help of ‘host nation fees’ as well as sponsorship deals with Saudi Telecom, Qiddiya, Jameel Motorsport, Sony, and PepsiCo, says Reichert.
Though Reichert didn’t go into details about future Esports World Cup editions – including whether it will always be held in Riyadh and if it’s planned for next year too – the CEO wants to keep his foot on the pedal.
‘We always envisioned the Esports World Cup as an annual event, and our plans haven’t changed.
‘We want the Esports World Cup to always showcase the world’s best players and clubs competing for life-changing prizes across the most popular games. I can’t wait for everyone to see what we have planned and to speak about it soon.’
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