Esports World Cup announce dates for 2026 tournament

Today the Esports World Cup have released early details for the 2026 edition of the Saudi CS2 tournament, which will see the event return to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for its third year. The announcement comes as tournament operators around the world are expected to make a number of announcements in the coming days as Valve's VRS rules require all tier one events in 2026 to be announced "no later than 1 January, 2025."

In the announcement, the EWC Foundation announced the event will run from August 10th to August 23rd, with those thirteen days including media days, travel days, and the tournament itself. As such, it is hard to determine how long the actual event will be, however, assuming at least half of those days are actual tournament days, it may suggest a format change for the 2026 edition of the tournament.

Should this come to pass, the change will likely be viewed positively as the current format can see a team sent packing after losing a single Bo3 and a single Bo1.

You can read the Esports World Cup's full press release here.