In September, I publicly asked the Global Esports Federation and its president Paul Foster when there would be an official announcement on the venue and other details related to its World Championship event, the Global Esports Games, which was previously announced as taking place in Chengdu, China.
On Tuesday, GEF announced that the in-person event had effectively been canceled for 2024 (though it didn’t use the word “canceled” in its announcement), and informed participants that this year’s final series of competitions would take place in early 2025. This story was first reported by Esports News UK on Friday.
The organization did not disclose why it canceled the event, but sources have told us for months that the organization was having some sort of issue with the Chinese government. The Esports Advocate could not independently verify any specific reasons for the GEF canceling this year’s event.
The company sent the following email to members (shared by bellemiku on X/twitter):
Dear Member Federations,
The annual flagship event, the Global Esports Games 2024, will be retimed to early 2025.
The adjustment allows us to ensure we continue to provide an exceptional experience for athletes, Member Federations, and fans worldwide.
Set to be the largest Global Esports Games ever – with more than 100 countries and territories qualified, comprising 700+ athletes and team officials – the gEF Divisions are actively working to finalize the Host City and date.
The GEF Board is committed to staging the annual Global Esports Games for our #worldconnected community. We thank you for your patience and continued support.
The annual GEF General Assembly for 2024 will be convened on Wednesday, 11 December 2024 in online format (Teams).
In line with the GEF Constitution, the final agenda will be issued a month prior to the General Assembly.
Thank you.
Best Regards
Bellemiku, one of the women that participated through GEF member federation the British Esports Federation (BEF) and qualified to compete in Dota 2 at the 2024 Global Esports Games, slammed the GEF for its handling of the situation in a series of posts on social media:
“Their lack of transparency on this matter has been absolutely unacceptable, they have not respected our careers or our time and have left us completely in the dark.
“This is not an event like normal Esports, most of us have careers outside of gaming, family to take care of etc.
“I’m honestly annoyed because now our federation itself has put so much time and effort into this being held next month. For myself personally, I had to purchase extra holiday days for work which are now useless, so I’m losing actual money just because they were not communicating.”
She is certainly not alone, as hundreds of participants made plans and spent money to prepare for the event.
The International Esports Federation had similar problems in 2024 with its Asian qualifier, which was also supposed to be hosted in Chengdu, and was forced to move it online. TEA reported in September that the General Administration of Sport of China closed the door on the IESF Asian Esports Championship in Chengdu, but IESF blamed the local tournament organizer. Instead of running AEC in Chengdu, IESF hosted the “World Esports Industry Development Conference” on Sept. 12. At the time, IESF told us:
“To clarify, the event transitioned to a fully online format to maintain the integrity and quality of the competition after the local host was unable to fulfill their contractual obligations. This decision ensured a seamless and memorable experience for our athletes and fans while maintaining fair competition.”