French esports club Team Vitality announced Tuesday that it has signed a Call of Duty: Warzone roster to compete at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and in the World Series of Warzone later this summer.
That new roster includes players Joni “Patzukka” Nikkanen (from Finland), Henrijs “Enxiun” Kukulitis (from Latvia), and Steve “Stewo” Fuckner (from Germany) will play under the Team Vitality colors on the world stage in July.
With the new Warzone team, Team Vitality has seven teams competing in the Esports World Cup Club competition, a multi-title competition that uses a points system across multiple game competitions to decide an overall winner, who will take the top prize of $7M USD allotted for the #1 team in the competition
“I’m delighted to be welcoming another new team to the hive as we set our sights on the club championship at Esports World Cup,” said Fabien “Neo” Devide, co-founder and president of Team Vitality. “Call of Duty was a foundational title for Team Vitality, and I look forward to seeing this awesome roster perform on the biggest stage of them all.”
Team Vitality is one of 30 teams that is part of the Esports World Cup Foundation’s Club Support Program, which financially incentivizes partnered teams to sign rosters for games that are included in the club competition, as well as overall promotion of the eight-week competition.
Other games that will be part of the Esports World Cup club competition include Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2 (Riyadh Masters), EA FC24, ESL R1 / Rennsport, Fortnite, Free Fire, Honor of Kings (HoK Invitational Midseason), League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (ML:BB Mid-Season Cup 2024 and ML:BB Women’s Invitational) PUBG Mobile (Mobile World Cup and Esports World Cup), Overwatch 2, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League, StarCraft II, Street Fighter 6, Teamfight Tactics, and TEKKEN 8.
The Esports World Cup is funded by a grant from the Saudi Arabian government, while competitions are being facilitated by ESL FACEIT Group, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Savvy Games Group. Savvy is owned by the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund and its Chairman of the board is Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler HRH Crown Prince MBS. EFG is home to tournament organizer ESL, Esports Engine, competition platform FACEIT, and esports and gaming festival company DreamHack.