The Esports Foundation has explained how Wildcard teams will qualify for the Esports Nations Cup.
The inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC) will take place from November 2 to November 29 this year, with national teams competing across 16 esports titles.
A scoring system will rank rosters’ players on their recent success, with the highest combined scorers receiving direct invites to ENC tournaments.
The remaining spots will then be decided through qualifiers and three types of Wildcard slots: Solidarity Slots, Host Region Slots, and Special Invites.
These Wildcard rules are intended to create opportunities for underrepresented countries and territories to compete.
How Do Teams Earn Wildcard Slots for the Esports Nations Cup?
The Esports Foundation claims that wildcard slots are designed to address “structural, technical and regional barriers” to ensure broader global representation.
Additionally, Wildcard Slot participants will receive full travel and accommodation support.
Solidarity Slots will help underrepresented regions compete in every ENC title except for Counter-Strike 2.
Starting July 20, countries and territories that haven’t qualified for more than one ENC title will be able to apply for a Solidarity Slot in their strongest titles.
The Esports Foundation will then work with respective publishers to award Solidarity Slots based on competitive strength and regional representation after all titles’ qualifiers have concluded.
Next, Special Invites will be handed out to address nations held back in standard qualifiers by technical or structural limitations.
These invites, applied only to select titles, will not be performance-based, but rather determined by an eligibility criteria.
So far, Invite and Solidarity Slots allocations have been announced for:
- Chess (two Solidarity Slots)
- EA Sports FC (five Special Invites, two Solidarity Slots)
- PUBG MOBILE (four Special Invites, one Solidarity Slot)
- Honor of Kings (one Special Invite, one Solidarity Slot)
- Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (one Special Invite, one Solidarity Slot)
- Rocket League (two Solidarity Slots)
- All remaining titles, excluding Counter-Strike 2, will have one Solidarity Slot by default
Esports Nations Cup Host Nations Slots
Finally, the Esports Foundation has also announced it will hand out Host Nations Slots in the future, like how Canada, Mexico, and the United States all automatically qualified for this year’s football World Cup.
This suggests that the ENC will move out of Saudi Arabia in the future, much like how the Esports World Cup 2025 has moved to Paris, France.
However, for ENC 2026, instead of slots for the host nation of Saudi Arabia, slots will instead be assigned through a merit-based system to the host region, aka members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Slots will be awarded to the highest-performing GCC nation that has not already qualified for the ENC.
Additionally, the directly invited Rainbow Six ENC teams have been confirmed, with a total of 81 rosters locked in so far.
What do you think about these ENC Wildcard rules? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord.
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