The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) has added Apex Legends to the competitive lineup for the inaugural Esports Nations Cup 2026 (ENC), set to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in November.
EA’s free-to-play battle royale game joins other previously announced competitive titles including PUBG: Battlegrounds, Rainbow Six Siege, EA Sports FC 26, Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Chess, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Trackmania, and Honor Kings. A total of 16 titles will be played at the nation vs. nation competition. Six more titles are to be announced.
According to the EWCF’s announcement on Thursday, a total of 40 teams will compete across a “round-robin group stage where every group will face each other in a six-match series, leading to a 20-team match point final.”
Twenty of those teams will come from “the 20 highest-ranked countries/territories,” based on “cumulative Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) Championship Points” (cutoff date, July 12) from eligible players from relevant countries/territories. An additional 18 teams may qualify directly from regional online qualifiers, with two from “wildcard slots.”
Stage 1 will feature all 40 qualified teams competing in a round robin format group stage featuring four groups of 10 teams where every group will face each other in a six-match series.
The top 20 best performing teams from the group stage advance to the finals. The finals will feature those 20 teams competing in a match point final, meaning “a team will need to earn enough points to activate match point, and then win a game to be crowned champions,” according to EWCF. There will be no limit on the amount of matches that could be played.
Online Qualifiers ENC slot allocation by region are:
- Americas (6 slots)
- Europe + Middle East + Africa (9)
- Asia Pacific North (0)
- Asia Pacific South (3)
- South Korea and Japan will be invited through the ALGS Championship Ranking, and an online qualifier will be held solely to determine the rosters for both countries.
More information about Apex Legends at ENC can be found at esportsnationscup.com.
Apex Legends being included in the ENC isn’t particularly surprising as Electronic Arts is in the midst of being sold to the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which for all intents and purposes funds the Esports World Cup, Esports Nations Cup, Esports World Cup Foundation, and Savvy Games Group, which owns and operates ESL FACEIT Group.
The ENC is set to take place Nov. 2 – 29, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The competition is being produced by the EWCF, which is funded through a so-called “sports grant” by the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the PIF.
Projects backed by the Saudi government are often accused of being used for “sports washing,” or as a cover for the government to gloss over its record on human rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, its mistreatment (and executions of) journalists, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms have been highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.