Hasty Decision of President of International Esports Federation Almost Led to Cancellation of World Championship
The International Esports Federation (IESF) council meeting was prompted to strongly oppose Saudi Prince Faisal’s proposal to cancel the IESF World Esports Championship 2024 (IESF WEC 2024), a move that might have had catastrophic consequences for the eSports industry.
Prince Faisal (Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud), the president of the IESF and a well-known personality in eSports, unexpectedly proposed at a significant meeting earlier this month to call off the IESF World Esports Championship 2024, a tournament that was scheduled to take place in his own country on November 11-19. The council members became very tense over this and rejected the proposal.
There Have Been Conflicts of Interest and Unforeseen Suggestions in Past
Media sources that cite James Fudge of The Esports Advocate (TEA) as their source claim that there was misunderstanding throughout the discussion and that the Prince’s plan to abruptly postpone the 2024 Esports World Championship wasn’t well received. Though the event was only set to take place in two months, Prince Faisal, who holds positions in several significant eSports organizations and is a founder of the Saudi Esports Federation, attempted to discuss the tournament’s cancellation.
Board members of a global organization located in South Korea, whose purpose is to have eSports recognized as a real sport, voted against the idea despite the turmoil that erupted during the IESF conference. The Saudi prince, who serves as the vice president of the Global Esports Federation (GEF), hinted that if his suggestion was rejected, it could be necessary to postpone the Global Esports Games in China, another significant event. This, however, had no bearing on the council’s choice, and the IESF WEC 2024 competition will proceed in Riyadh according to schedule.
There will be 24 teams participating in the LAN (offline) tournament that brings together member federations from across the world, following regional and continental qualifications, to compete at the highest level as national teams since 2011. If you plan to bet on the event in Saudi’s capital, you’ll have to wait for sites for CS2 eSports betting to launch the odds, which likely won’t happen before all four groups for preliminaries are determined. The nations will compete in seven game titles:
- CS2
- CS2 Female
- Mobile Legends: Bang bang
- Dota 2
- PUBG Mobile
- Tekken7
- eFootball
Ramifications for eSports Industry
The choice to go ahead with the competition will have a significant impact on the global eSports scene, particularly in light of Saudi Arabia’s prominence as a host nation, successfully hosting the first-ever Esports World Cup, which ended a month ago.
Even if there are still unanswered questions regarding the political and economic sides of the World Esports Championships, IESF WEC 2024 will go on despite internal strife at the highest levels.
