Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) announced Wednesday that Dota 2 has been formally announced as the third of 16 titles that will be played during the Esports Nations Cup 2026 (EWC 2026), a nations vs. nations competition taking place in November in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Valve’s popular MOBA joins previously announced titles Trackmania and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
If you haven’t been paying attention, ENC 2026 is a multi-title international competition that will be hosted every two years and operated by Saudi Arabia’s EWCF. For the inaugural edition, the event will take place in Riyadh, with plans for a new nation to host it every two years. The competition is a replacement of sorts for Esports Olympic Games—a joint venture between the International Olympic Committee and Esports World Cup Foundation that was part of a 12 year deal that ultimately ended in 2025 over differences on how the competition should be handled.
EWCF’s plans for Dota 2 will feature 32 teams, each made up of the best five Dota 2 players from each nation, competing across a group stage, then playoffs, and a best-of-five grand final series between the last two standing teams. The Dota 2 tournament at ENC begins on Nov. 2, and concludes with a playoff final on Nov. 8.
The first stage will feature the top 32 teams in a round-robin group stage (four groups of eight teams), followed by a second stage of 16 teams competing in a single-elimination playoff bracket. Group stages will be best-of-one and all playoff matches (excluding the grand final) will be best-of-three. Finally, the grand final featuring the top two teams will be played in a best-of-five.
EWCF says that the top 16 teams will be “directly invited based on the Dota 2 National Team Ranking,” with 14 teams qualifying through regional online qualifiers, and two selected from Wildcard slots. Direct invites will be determined from the Dota 2 National Team Ranking, which will “take into account Tier 1 Dota 2 competitions (starting June 8, 2025).
“Clubs will be awarded points based on placements at these official competitions, with those points equally shared across all Club teammates who participated. The national ranking will then accumulate the points of the top five players on the submitted national roster. The cut-off date for the national ranking is June 7, 2026.”
An official Dota 2 online qualifier will take between June 16 – July 5; qualifiers will be double-elimination brackets, hosted in each of the following regions:
- North America (1 slot)
- South America (2)
- Western Europe (2)
- Eastern Europe (2)
- Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia (2)
- Central and South Africa (1)
- South and East Asia (2)
- Southeast Asia and Oceania (2)
Clearly any Dota 2 competition victories or placement will be taken into account when tabulating who gets invited to the ENC in November.
Additional information about the Esports Nations Cup will be released at a later date.
Projects backed by the Saudi government are often accused of being used for “sports washing,” or as a cover for the government to gloss over its record on human rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, its mistreatment (and executions of) journalists, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms have been highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.