It took less than a week for fan reaction within the community to overturn a decision by GeoGuessr to attend the Esports World Cup Festival. On May 16, the Esports World Cup Foundation and GeoGuessr announced the game would be part of the Esports World Cup-adjacent gaming a gaming culture festival.
As part of the event, GeoGuessr planned to host a “Last Chance Wildcard Tournament” during Week 3 of the EWC Festival (July 21–27) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The initial plan was to invite the top 16 ranked GeoGuessr players in the world, to compete for a total prize pool of $20,000 USD total prize pool. The top two players at the competition would then be given the final spots in the 2025 GeoGuessr World Championship in Copenhagen, Denmark, later this year (Aug. 29–30).
But this week fans began strongly objecting to GeoGuessr’s plan—with some map makers announcing they were boycotting the game and the festival.
BREAKING NOW: “all major world maps” on the game @geoguessr have been privated in protest of their decision to participate in Riyadh’s Esports World Cup.
map creators write that the EWC is used by Saudi Arabia “to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record.” pic.twitter.com/vv3TC4DYni
— ryan fae (@RhinozzCode) May 21, 2025
On Thursday, GeoGuessr CEO and Co-Founder Daniel Antell officially announced that the company had made a decision to reverse course:
We will not participate in the EWC.
Message from CEO & co-founder below:
Hi everyone,
I’ve seen your reactions over the past few days regarding our decision to participate in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh. When we made that decision, it was with positive intentions. To…
— GeoGuessr (@geoguessr) May 22, 2025
Oddly enough, fans did not seem to mind GeoGuessr competitive play taking place at DreamHack Dallas at the end of this month, even though DreamHack is owned by ESL FACEIT Group, which is a subsidiary of Saudi Arabian government owned Savvy Games Group. The GeoGuessr Major taking place at DreamHack Dallas (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 was the second title announced last week for the Esports World Cup Festival—the first was 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. 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.
Critics say that Saudi Arabian government-backed projects help the government engage in “sports washing,” or using 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.