“Maybe it’s not actually voluntary”: Are esports organizations pressuring VALORANT pros to compete in the EWC? Or does the issue go deeper than that?

Last week, insights from a recent episode of The Vodfathers podcast sparked heated discussions about the Esports World Cup (EWC) VALORANT tournament. 

According to esports broadcast talent and The Vodfathers co-host, Josh “Sideshow” Wilkinson, some esports organizations prioritize the EWC over their performance in Riot Games’ semi-franchised VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) due to the massive monetary revenue associated with the Saudi Arabia-funded event. Moreover, these teams allegedly fire VALORANT players and staff should they refuse to compete in the EWC.

“So I was like: Hmm, maybe it’s not actually voluntary. Maybe these players are being forced to burn themselves out horribly for VCT,” concluded Sideshow during the podcast. 

As a result, some community members considered these organizational policies “coercion,” while others emphasized the business incentives behind EWC participation. 

EWC-related issues continue to divide the VALORANT scene. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing campaign gains increasing influence not just over esports organizations and their management decisions, but also over the VCT calendar. 

The first VCT franchise era was announced in 2022. It was designed to provide a stable, highly competitive environment with breaks throughout the annual Tier 1 esports calendar to allow teams to recharge and adjust to mid-season meta changes.

What determines the quality of competition of an esports tournament? There’s the format to consider. Usually, double-elimination brackets are preferred over single-elimination formats. A strong team can still have a bad day or matchup, which would mean instant elimination from a single-elimination event. On the flip side, weaker teams can make significant progress in a single-elimination bracket by achieving a couple of upsets.

Another factor is ping, which affects how quickly a game responds to player inputs. The lower the ping, the better. Therefore, Riot Games invested in local LAN environments for its VCT events. The EWC, on the other hand, hosts parts of its VALORANT tournament online. 

It also uses single-elimination brackets for both its regional qualifiers and the main event’s Playoffs stage. You heard that right: the EWC crowns its annual VALORANT champion via a single-elimination bracket.

Therefore, despite its massive prize pool, the EWC is viewed as a “Mickey Mouse” tournament: a tournament of low competitive significance, by many in the VALORANT esports scene.

Now, if the EWC were only a Mickey Mouse tournament, that would be one thing. Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia’s esportswashing flagship can also heavily impact the performance level of teams in the VCT. 

In one of my previous articles, I discussed how different VCT events and regions playing on different game patches introduce competitive integrity concerns. This also applies to the EWC. For instance, less than two weeks ago, the three Chinese teams at the EWC (EDward Gaming, XLG Esports, and All Gamers) played on an outdated map pool compared to that in VCT China Stage 2. This week, they returned from the EWC to make their Stage 2 debuts.

Despite being favorites in their opening matchups, two out of the three teams lost their first series.

VCT China itself made scheduling adjustments to accommodate EWC participants. Although they are some of the biggest names in their region, no matches were scheduled for them during the opening week of Stage 2 in case they’d qualify for the EWC Playoffs. 

As a result, other teams like TYLOO and Wolves Esports had to play three games in their first week of Stage 2. The fact that a franchised Riot Games league is making match-schedule adjustments for an optional third-party tournament is emblematic of the Esports Foundation’s and, by extension, Saudi Arabia’s ever-growing influence in esports.

“I really hope that we don’t keep sabotaging the circuit so that people can play EWC,” commented Sideshow on The Vodfathers. “Even if it was the most f***ing ethical tournament of all time. Even if you got brownie points for participating, it would still be f***ing dumb the way that they’ve integrated it into the circuit.”

Another factor is exhaustion from constant competition and international travel. For XLG Esports, the Stage 2 debut against Titan Esports Club was the roster’s fifth match within just nine days. 100 Thieves will play its first VCT Americas Stage 2 game on July 19th, only one week after being crowned EWC VALORANT Champion.

“Do you remember when they first announced the tournament and – I think it was Leo [Faria], but it might not have been. Maybe it was somebody else. They were saying like: ‘None of the players will be forced to participate. You know, it’s still an optional event,’” recalled Sideshow.

In 2024, Riot Games first allowed two of its titles, League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics, to be featured at the EWC. One of the main reasons for this decision was to give “esports teams and players the option to participate in a major economic and brand-building opportunity.” The EWC’s prize pool back then was $62.5 million. This year, it is $75 million.

And indeed, when Riot announced its three-year licensing agreement with the EWC in 2025, the company said this: “Like all third-party events, participation in the EWC is completely optional for teams, pros, talent, and creators, and that choice has no impact whatsoever on their relationship with Riot and their role in our official events.” 

But, according to Sideshow, the reality behind the scenes looks different. Whether it is due to moral convictions or burnout concerns, if a player can get fired from a VCT team for opting out of the EWC, then yes, that will affect their role in official Riot events. Because they would no longer be competing in the VCT. 

Media and finance professional David “ShyKnock” Szajnuk, who also commented on the player-contract debate, spoke with Esports Insider about his understanding of Saudi funding and influence. 

“The morality of two years ago when orgs said, ‘Oh it’s player choice if you don’t want to play in Saudi Arabia due to LBGTQ and safety concerns’ was always going to go out the window over time as the controversial nature of Saudi involvement became more normalized,” ShyKnock told me.

“Now, that same concern won’t be extended due to corporate greed, as it was always temporary ‘care’ in my opinion. Some might stick to that, others I doubt still do, especially with the event being in Paris, even if the supporting entity still has the same beliefs.”

The problem goes beyond silly tournament formats and bad scheduling. The EWC strives to be a “premier annual sporting event” and “the largest-ever celebration of esports and gaming culture.” This grandiose vision directly clashes with the VCT’s position as the premier VALORANT esports circuit in the game’s annual competitive calendar. 

The EWC, however, has made a near-irresistible offer to incentivize participation by esports stakeholders, despite the event’s relatively low competitive significance. For esports organizations, it’s much-needed funding fueled by the huge prize pool and the Esports Foundation Club Partner Program.

For broadcast staff and talent, it’s a reliable gig in an otherwise declining and highly competitive job market. And even esports consumers, who might not be able to afford a trip to VCT events, can be invited as superfans, all expenses paid. 

“Once money enters an ecosystem, it doesn’t leave; if anything, it only expands until it’s fully wrapped around the industry or regulation is passed outlawing it. […]  Additionally, as mentioned before, the money has plugged the hole that developers and [venture capitalists] (VC) left by pulling out their investment when they realized they propped up the industry too far to ever hit their growth targets, let alone even profitability,” outlined ShyKnock. 

“So now, everyone is reliant on Saudi money until they decide they are over the losses esports brings and enter an even darker period, as nobody else is left to plug the hole. Or… we figure out our financial woes and everything is great!

“Yet here we are, 13 years into my time following and supporting esports with no solutions in sight…”

ShyKnock believes that without EWC funding, our industry would “shrink to the size of pre-VC esports,” resulting in a “hefty round of layoffs and lower brand reach.” In addition, esports organizations likely “wouldn’t be able to afford the propped-up salaries of big players in large esports or sometimes even league minimum salaries without the developer given stipends.”

All this is given an air of credibility by making strategic ambassador acquisitions, including Chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen, football star Cristiano Ronaldo, and, most recently, League of Legends icon Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok.

To achieve its “esportswashing” goals, the Esports Foundation is deploying an industry-wide strategy of coercion.

“Does your organization want to survive financial turmoil and a lack of sustainable revenue streams? We have an easy fix for you!”

“Do you want to cast or interview some of the biggest names in any given esports title? Here’s an opportunity that isn’t saturated with established talent yet!” 

The result is a growing divide within various esports communities, including the VALORANT scene. This was highlighted once again during the online debate sparked by Sideshow’s insights on player contracts.

Our industry appears to be split. On one side are those who see the EWC as a necessary evil to keep the esports business apparatus running. The other side believes that the accompanying moral or competitive integrity concerns are too high a cost to bear.

ShyKnock’s take on the player-contract debate offers both nuance and a daunting prospect: “I look this way: if you lacked the common sense to know that your org would prioritize this even if you personally don’t, then that’s on you. Justified is different than morally right or wrong, as a breach in contract is a justifiable event to take action, but morality is where this is all debated.”

He added: “At the end of the day, if you get involved with esports in 2026, you know that you will be lying in a Saudi-paid bed in some way. There is no way to remain clean and you either accept that and attend or get out of esports until they leave as well; of which there is no guarantee that the next entity that comes in to fund the scene will be any morally better.

“Everything sucks; nobody wins but those with the money in the first place (even then, they lose their money), and yet we keep trucking on, hoping for a better future ahead in the capacity that we can control our own actions.”