The eSports World Cup represents one of the most ambitious attempts to create a unified global championship across various gaming titles.
Launched as a rebranding and expansion of the Gamers8 tournament series, spawned from Gaming Without Borders (GWB) tournaments, the eSports World Cup was designed to establish a FIFA World Cup-style competition for the gaming world.
The driving force behind this rebrand has been Saudi Arabia, a country that has increasingly been looking to expand its sporting influence across the globe. Saudi Arabia has provided the funds to support the tournament and the host city, Riyadh.
The concept of competitive gaming is nothing new, of course. Casino gaming has demonstrated for centuries that its ruthless, dog-eat-dog nature appeals not just to the players but also to audiences.
Today, platforms like DraftKings bring together the modern and the historic with their online blackjack games that bring the old-school allure of competitive casino gaming into the digital world inhabited by eSports.
Back to the topic at hand though. What of the eSports World Cup? Has it been a success? Read on to find out…
Breaking Viewership Records Across Multiple Titles
From a pure numbers perspective, the eSports World Cup (EWC) has delivered impressive viewership statistics that point squarely toward success. The League of Legends tournament achieved 1.2 million peak viewers with over 18 million hours watched. The final itself broke records by becoming the first EWC final to breach the 1 million mark for live viewers.
League of Legends has always been popular, though. What has been even more impressive is the viewing figures for mobile gaming titles. The Honor of Kings event hit 653,309 peak viewers and racked up 3 million viewing hours throughout the tournament.
There are heaps of other figures that we could insert into this section to demonstrate the EWC’s commercial success, but after a certain point, numbers tend to lose their meaning. Suffice it to say that the most recent incarnation of the EWC broke viewing records not just among one or two titles but across almost every single one.
High Profile Pullouts
The viewership numbers tell a tale of a rip-roaring success for the EWC, which ultimately is all the Saudi Arabian hosts will care about. However, there were vocal and justified calls of concern from a number of high-profile teams and players—GeoGuessr and several Apex Legends pros decided to boycott the tournament.
Beyond the gaming landscape, several sponsors also decided not to sponsor the tournament due to concerns over Saudi Arabia’s suitability as the host nation.
Sportswashing Explained
The controversy surrounding the tournament stems from what is known as ‘sportswashing’. The term describes the act of using sports to launder or wash the public image of a person, organisation, or, in this case, a country.
Think of Pablo Escobar taking a prominent role at Colombian football club Atletico Nacional in the 1980s or, most famously, Nazi Germany hosting the 1936 Olympic Games. Whilst Saudi Arabia is not masterminding global cocaine production or committing anywhere near the same atrocities as the Nazi regime, it is still a very problematic country.
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(The most famous example of sportswashing in modern history.)
Last year, the country recorded the highest number of state executions (330) in over 34 years, with many of the victims being put to death for voicing their concerns about the current regime. For decades, the execution method of choice by the Saudi regime has been beheading by sword in public squares.
In addition to this, amputation of the right hand is also regularly enforced as a punishment for theft in the country. Famously, too, in October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a US-based Saudi journalist and critic of the government, visited the Saudi consulate in Turkey and was brutally murdered.
Whilst supporters of the Saudi regime argue that their government’s actions are no worse than those of other major countries – the USA and Israel are frequently cited as examples – their involvement in the EWC has left a sour taste in the mouth of many.
The Future of the EWC: Will the Tournament Succeed?
If, like the author of this piece, you have concerns over the suitability of Saudi Arabia as a host for any sporting event, unfortunately, you will be disappointed in the long run. Money talks, and that’s an abundant resource that the Saudi regime has.
Across a range of other more mainstream sports, it has been demonstrated time and time again that sportswashing is OK, as long as the money is right. The viewership records at the last EWC will eventually tempt back the majority of sponsors who have boycotted the event, and, within a few cycles, the dissenting voices will grow quieter and quieter.
Is that a pessimistic view? Yes. Is it a view based on what has happened in every other sport on the planet, throughout decades and decades of sportswashing? Yes.
