Esports World Cup 2024 is quickly approaching. This will be an epic event where more than a dozen different esports are represented. CS2 will have its own tournament, which will be almost as big as a Major and will offer $1 million in prize money.
What’s strange about this competition is that it features 15 participants instead of the usual eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty-four, or thirty-two. The competitive format is also strange. It has an opening stage that consists of seven qualification matches. The winners advance to the playoffs. The losers get a second chance in the play-in stage.
This second stage is brutal. Out of eight teams, only one advances to the playoffs. That team needs to win three consecutive matches to qualify.
The playoffs stage consists of eight teams that play in a single-elimination format. All matches are best-of-three. At this stage of the tournament, there is no difference between Esports World Cup and a proper Major.
Counter-Strike is so back 🤩#CS2 at the #EWC is getting closer and closer, are you ready?!
⬇️ Find the most important information by swiping 👇
— Esports World Cup (@EWC_EN) May 8, 2024
Participants And Favorites
Here are the 15 teams that compete in the tournament:
- Team Spirit
- FaZe Clan
- Team Vitality
- G2 Esports
- MOUZ
- Natus Vincere
- Virtus.pro
- The MongolZ
- Complexity
- FURIA Esports
- Sashi Esport
- M80
- MIBR
- FlyQuest
- JijieHao
The favorites are not hard to guess. But because of the sheer number of top teams that compete in the tournament, it’s quite challenging to predict who will be the winner.
In principle, Team Spirit, FaZe Clan, and MOUZ should not get eliminated before the semifinals. All of them are strong and will start with high expectations.
But we shouldn’t underestimate the others: G2, Vitality, Na’Vi, The MongolZ, and even Complexity. All of them proved in recent months that they can win trophies.
Complexity won at DreamHack Jonkoping. The MongolZ won at YaLLa Compass. The others either won or finished 2nd at IEM Dallas (G2 and Vitality) and BLAST Premier Spring Final (Na’Vi).
Given the strange format, the first match will be hugely important. Whoever wins that match will be just three victories away from the trophy and one victory away from the semifinals.
We do not yet know who will play against who in the opening stage. Supposedly, the strongest competitors will be asked to play against weaker teams in order to guarantee that they will have the highest chance of advancing to the playoffs.
If some of the top teams need to face each other from the start, it won’t be an issue unless there’s more than one clash of titans. With two clashes, the event will automatically lose at least one great team because the play-in stage only offers one qualification spot for the playoffs.
Header: ESL, Esports World Cup Foundation
