Esports Nations Cup postponed due to tensions in Middle East
25 August 2026
During the New Global Sports Conference in August 2025, the Esports Nations Cup was announced for the first time. The inaugural edition of the new esports event was set to take place in November 2026 in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), which was big news for esports in the UK as well, as dozens of UK teams were in contention for a spot. Unfortunately, though, due to ongoing tensions in the Middle East, the Esports Nations Cup was recently postponed by a year. The inaugural edition of the tournament is now planned for November 2027 in Riyadh.
Statement from Esports Foundation
The Esports Nations Cup was conceived by the Esports Foundation and it was this organisation who recently announced the postponement. On August 18th, 2026, they officially published their decision to postpone the entire event by one year, as a result of ongoing tension in the Middle East due to (geo-)political escalations between Israel, Iran and the United States of America.
“The decision to postpone the Esports Nations Cup was not taken lightly,” says Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports Foundation, “The response from National Team Partners, publishers, players and communities around the world has shown us how much potential this competition has. We owe them an inaugural ENC delivered under the right conditions and at the level this idea deserves. Hosting the tournament in Riyadh next year does not change our commitment. We will continue investing in our National Team Partners, working with publishers and building the national ecosystems already taking shape around the competition. The work continues, and our ambition for ENC remains unchanged.”
Team Great Britain
Naturally, the postponement represents a disappointing development after several months of squad selections, qualifiers and preparations all over the world. This is also goes for Team Great Britain, who had already announced their teams for several titles in the past few months, including for League of Legends, Rainbow Six Siege and Rocket League. British Esports, Esports Wales, Scottish Esports, the English Football Association (FA), the UK Esports Team Committee (UKETC) and Fnatic, who together form Team Great Britain, recently issued a statement in regard to the postponement of the Esports Nations Cup.
“We want to make it clear that the safety and welfare of the players, coaches and staff is our top priority”, the statement reads, “As to how this may affect team selections or anything else from a Great Britain perspective, given this is a developing situation, we will await further developments and will be sure to bring you any updates as soon as we have them. What we can confirm is that Great Britain recently qualified to compete in 11 titles following the recent qualification stage of the Esports Nations Cup. We would like to thank the players, coaches, staff, partners and wider esports community for their support and understanding, and look forward to representing Great Britain in 2027.”
The Esports Foundation has made clear it will work with stakeholders over coming weeks to clarify how the new timeline affects the competition, and whether any qualification pathways that are currently ongoing will be impacted. Naturally, we will keep you updated.