The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) and GeoGuessr announced Friday that its flagship title will join the Esports World Cup Festival tournament program, a new series of competitive events held alongside the Esports World Cup 2025, and formally revealed on Thursday.
As part of the event, GeoGuessr will host a “Last Chance Wildcard Tournament” during Week 3 of the EWC Festival (July 21–27) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The competition will invite the top 16 ranked GeoGuessr players in the world, competing for part of a $20,000 USD total prize pool. The top two players at the competition will be given the final spots in the 2025 GeoGuessr World Championship in Copenhagen, Denmark, later this year (Aug. 29–30).
The next stop for the GeoGuessr competitive play will be at DreamHack Dallas at the end of this month. The GeoGuessr Major at DreamHack Dallas, called the GeoGuessr Americas Major, will feature the top six players from Americas competing for a share of the $17,500 total prize pool and points towards the World Championship.
GeoGuessr is the second title announced this week for the Esports World Cup Festival—the first being NetGames’ action battle royale game Naraka: Bladepoint.
The Esports World cup Foundation describes the EWC Festival as a tandem event to EWC 2025 featuring gaming, entertainment, and esports culture, and promises esports tournaments, live music, retro arcades, anime cafes, cosplay shows, creator studios, and more.
Both the Esports World Cup 2025 and the EWC Festival are funded by a grant from the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund.
These and other Saudi Arabian government backed projects have received a fair share of criticism for helping the government engage in what critics call “sports washing,” or using sport and entertainment to cover up the country’s record on human rights. These issues are regularly monitored by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.