The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) formally announced that Ubisoft’s popular racing title Trackmania will be a competitive title in the Esports Nations Cup this fall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Trackmania is the second title that has officially been announced, alongside Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, for the nation vs. nation competition.
Trackmania as a competitive title isn’t a particularly surprising choice, given Ubisoft’s commitment to the the Esports Nations Cup, alongside other publishers including Chess.com, Krafton, and Tencent.
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.
Editor’s note: An earlier iteration of this story confused the Esports World Cup with the Esports Nations Cup. We apologize for the error.