100 Thieves Explains its Participation in the Esports World Cup

100 Thieves explains its participation in the Esports World Cup this year.

Newly appointed 100 Thieves President Jacob Toft-Andersen attempted to explain his organization’s involvement in the Saudi Arabian government-backed Esports World Cup, the eight-week esports competition taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, beginning in July. 

On Monday organizers of the Esports World Cup Foundation announced the 30 teams that have been accepted into the Esports World Cup Club Support program, which offers financial incentives to organizations that build new rosters to compete in Esports World Cup titles and to generally promote the upcoming event on social media and other avenues.

In a Reddit post, Toft-Anderson attempted to explain his organization’s participation in this year’s event, noting that it is not competing, but it is taking funds to explore new rosters, to satisfy the needs of its potential player hires who want to compete in the “most competitive and prize rewarding tournaments.”

“To shed some light on our involvement with the EWC and the thinking around it:

“It is our ambition to enter more esports titles in the future, e.g. reentering CS2, Apex Legends, Fortnite, as well as new titles. In order for us to do so, it is paramount for recruiting that we are participating in the most significant tournaments. It is near impossible to convince the best players in the world to compete for us, if they aren’t able to participate in some of the most competitive and prize rewarding tournaments.

“Conceptually, we think of the EWC as a great way for teams to compete against each other across disciplines, that will keep evolving for years to come; think of it as an Olympics format where teams can be the best in individual titles, but there are some teams that will dominate across several competitions and ultimately come out as the most successful organization.

“We have been in ongoing talks with a lot of our competitors, who all rationalized their commitment to the tournament (most of whom have participated in years past as well, when the tournament was named Gamers8).

“We do not currently have any teams competing in the Esports World Cup this year.”

Toft-Anderson does not address any of the controversy surrounding participating in an event and its incentive program backed by the Saudi government and all that entails. 

Toft-Anderson took over the role from John Robinson, who left the organization last month, but remains in an advisory role.  Robinson’s exit also saw a number of other promotions to fill the leadership vacuum, including Jason Ton (who was serving as CFO), promoted to CFO and chief business officer, and Julie (who served as SVP of people) promoted to chief operating officer. 

One of the facets of the Esports World Cup Club Support Program that 100 Thieves could be involved in (despite not competing this year) is the actual promotion of the competition in the lead-up before it starts in July; as there are financial incentives for promoting the Esports World Cup and driving attention towards it.

As an example of what that might look like, the announcement thread on Twitter/X from Monday features extremely positive responses from Cloud9, NRG Esports, G2 Esports, Spacestation Gaming, Team Liquid, and FNATIC (all partnered teams to the Esports World Cup), just to name a few.

The Esports World Cup is backed by a government sports grant (similar to what would be provided for a major sporting event) from the Saudi Arabian government, with that money coming directly from the sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF). Esports World Cup competitions are being facilitated by ESL FACEIT Group, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Savvy Games Group (also owned by the Saudi government). EFG is home to tournament organizer ESL, competition platform FACEIT, and esports and gaming festival company DreamHack.