How EWC’s unexpected move accelerated its global plans

TimesofIndia.com in PARIS: The Esports World Cup was not supposed to be in Paris this year. The 2026 edition was moved from Riyadh to the French capital in May amid the regional security situation, with the Esports Foundation stressing that Riyadh remained the event’s home.What was initially a necessity has now given the organisers something else to think about: whether EWC can actually travel. Faisal Bin Homran, chief product officer of the Esports Foundation, says the Paris move has accelerated a plan to eventually take the tournament to other cities.For Bin Homran, that has provided something more useful than a change of venue: proof that the tournament can travel.“What happened this year is we expedited this move,” Bin Homran told TimesofIndia.com. “It was 2028, 2029, 2030. To rotate, it was 2036. So we expedited this strategy. Was it 2026 planned? No. But this move was expedited. And this tells me that it’s ready to move around.”The Paris edition, therefore, is being viewed inside the Foundation as more than an international stop for an event whose home has been Riyadh.“I think we would see EWC rotating. We don’t know where or when yet. But I think at the end of it, it would be a global IP event in the world,” he said.Riyadh will continue to be the event’s hub, even as EWC looks to take the tournament to other cities.“Adding to that, Riyadh would be the hub and the host of it as a default,” Bin Homran said.Paris had the practical ingredients to make the move possible. Bin Homran pointed to the city’s infrastructure and existing esports audience, as well as its recent experience hosting major esports tournaments.The biggest logistical problem was not the venue. “The visa was a challenge, to be honest,” he said.

Faisal Bin Homran, chief product officer of the Esports Foundation (Image credit: Vineet Ramakrishnan/TimesofIndia.com)

The Foundation had less than six weeks to put the Paris edition together and needed a large number of visas to be issued. Bin Homran credited support from France and Paris for helping the event overcome that hurdle.“So it was tough. But we overcome it with the partnership with them.”The move also appears to have sharpened the Foundation’s thinking about what EWC is supposed to become. Bin Homran does not describe it simply as a tournament. He keeps returning to four principles: the best games, the best clubs and players, and a gaming festival that can attract people beyond the core esports audience.“We have the best games around the world. We have the best clubs and the best players. And we have the best gaming festival. So it is a festival that hosts the best tournaments from all over the world.”In Paris, EWC has also been built around more than the competition, with fan zones and activities running alongside the tournaments. Bin Homran said the idea is to draw people beyond those who follow individual esports titles.“There is something for families to come into it. There is something for esports fans. And there is something for gamers, which is a wider appealing audience than esports fans’ niche who are only watching Fnatic to play Valorant or watching Magnus and just all these.”The ambition is now to take that product to more markets and India is one of them.Bin Homran described India as “one of the most important markets” because of its player base, games and influencer culture. But he also pointed to a problem that has less to do with the size of the country’s gaming audience and more to do with how the global games industry operates.

(Image credit: Vineet Ramakrishnan/TimesofIndia.com)

“We had some challenges of some games that has a different version in India,” he said. “I hope that publishers fix this.”His preference is for games to be more globally aligned so that players from different markets can compete against one another without separate versions creating barriers.“If publishers globalise their games, that would help me,” he said. “I don’t want to have, oh, when I play, I want to talk, I want to talk with one language. Let’s play with the mobile. Let’s play this game. Let’s play this game.”The Foundation is already researching how it can increase its presence in India, including through qualifiers and tournaments. And Bin Homran has a specific idea for what that could look like.“My goal, hopefully one day, to have a qualifier in each of the different main markets. So I want the qualifier to be physical there. So you have road to EWC India.”The idea is straightforward: a physical Indian qualifier focused on Indian players and clubs, with the winners earning a route to the Esports World Cup.“This is to see which Indian club or players qualify to EWC,” he said. “It’s similar to this. But it’s only focusing on the Indian players and Indian clubs. That’s the aim and the goal. And we’re working towards that goal.”

(Image credit: Vineet Ramakrishnan/TimesofIndia.com)

The Foundation is already looking at ways to increase its presence in India, including qualifiers and tournaments. Bin Homran has a specific idea in mind.Bin Homran also rejected the idea that India lacks the ingredients to produce more top-level esports participation. “I don’t think there’s something missing in India,” he said, adding, “I think it’s the alignment of the main stakeholders. Because I own EWC. I don’t own publisher’s license.”He believes that situation is changing as publishers look at how to globalise their games and improve their presence in India. “So as soon as everything is aligned, I think we can do it faster than ever,” he said.The India plans are still being worked on. There is no city, date or tournament format announced in the interview. But Bin Homran said the Foundation is researching how to build a stronger presence in the country and hopes to have more activity there soon.“I hope one day or soon, we will have more stuff there,” he said. “And I will go myself there and see it and check it out.”

(Image credit: Vineet Ramakrishnan/TimesofIndia.com)

For now, Paris is serving a similar purpose for EWC itself. The Foundation has taken a tournament that was built around Riyadh and put it in a different city, with a different audience and a compressed preparation timeline.Bin Homran’s assessment is that the experiment has worked well enough to accelerate an ambition that had been further down the road. The next destination is not decided. But the direction is.“I think we would see EWC rotating,” Bin Homran said. “We don’t know where or when yet.” And somewhere in that future rotation, the Foundation wants India to have its own route in. “Road to EWC India.”