Esports World Cup 2024 Club Championship: How Competitive The Games Are?
With the Esports World Cup 2024 beginning in a couple of days, Esports Charts has looked at how the Club Championship will affect teams and competition across the 21 games. This system will decide the best club in the world based on a few criteria, so we will talk about the points and prize money distribution, and what happens in the event of a tiebreaker.
Readers must note that the Club Championship is not to be confused with the Club Program. This Esports World Cup Foundation program will provide financial backing to sides and has encouraged these organizations to explore new games and bolster their rosters.
The inaugural EWC has expanded the club awards system introduced at Gamers8 2023 to accommodate 30 of the largest teams in global esports, selected from 150 applications. These organizations can receive six-figure yearly payouts to support their operations and will compete for points in the club championship, similar to last year’s club awards. That is why $20 million out of a total of $60 million will be dedicated directly to the club championship.
What makes this program exciting is that these clubs will gain ranking points for tournament victories and even top-eight finishes. There are two criteria; one of these is necessary to participate, whilst the other is necessary to win:
- Clubs need to attain top-eight finishes in at least two competitions to be eligible to participate in the Club Championship.
- Clubs must end in first place in at least one event to be eligible to win the Club Championship and become the best team in the world. In the case that the Club with the most points has not achieved this, first place will go to the Club that has accrued the most points whilst meeting this requirement.
At the end of the two months of action, the club that has topped this leaderboard and met the two criteria will share an additional prize pool of $20 million with the rest of the top 16 finishers. Readers must also note that organizations can only earn points for participants publicly stated as part of the organization before the deadline at 23:59 AST on June 13, 2024, including tournaments where the qualification or invitation occurs after that date.
That in essence means that each new roster offers clubs an additional opportunity to accumulate ranking points across the Esports World Cup competitions. As a result, companies looking to gain as big a chunk of these extra earnings as possible are incentivized to sign players in disciplines that don’t boast the largest audiences in the overall picture and help them reach the corners of the globe that they don’t usually do.
It also means that the rosters give their best to earn points that count for this club championship competition, which can only mean better quality matches for audiences watching from home and at the venue. However, a few games will have only eight teams attending (like League of Legends), which means every participant will earn a specific number of points, and it will be interesting to see how competitive the games will be, although there is no doubt it will be one of the more popular titles on display.
At the other extreme, any competition with a high number of participants means the chance of any team winning is reduced. However, fans will bank on the more renowned and successful ones to play as per their reputations, especially in the more popular esports titles.
The points distribution system is the same across competitions in the Esports World Cup, thus rewarding clubs that consistently perform at the highest level across the board. More orgs competing in more titles means more competition and many more unforgettable moments in esports history.
When it comes to the prize money split, the best of the 16 most successful clubs will get its hands on a mammoth prize of $7 million. Second place will get $4 million, while the last name on the podium will become richer by $2 million.
For a detailed look at the breakdown of the total winnings, tiebreaker, and points, readers can head to the official site here.
For those interested in knowing how much each club can get, if an esports organization has a team in each game, it has a chance to obtain a maximum of 440 points (22 tournaments x 20 points). With the least number of participants, LoL has the highest possibility for a team to finish with 20 points and is the only game with double figures in that metric.
The other esports titles with a higher probability of sides accruing the full 20 points are Rennsport (team championship mode), Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (female), and Honor of Kings. Both Moonton and TiMi Studios’ highly popular mobile MOBAs have only 12 participants, although the latter carries a much higher prize pool of $3 million for its inaugural Mid-Season Invitational 2024 event.
Another positive from this new club program is that the global facet of esports is being displayed to the world. Organizations with massive fanbases in Europe, North America, the Middle East, South America, and Asia will be supported by the EWC in the coming years.
This has also meant that the gap between Western and Asian is no longer that wide, with orgs from both sides ready to collaborate with each other for the sake of more success. After all, apart from gaining access to new games and the chance to connect with local fanbases, players, coaches, and managers get valuable experience by mingling with prominent international organizations. This also facilitates a mutual exchange of cultures, experiences, opportunities, and networks.
The best example of this reciprocal relationship was seen almost instantly, as the likes of Team Liquid and Fnatic achieved their second-highest monthly viewership in May thanks to their Mobile Legends rosters. Sadi Arabia’s Team Falcons also hit two personal bests after adopting new rosters, which raised the number of matches it played and its total airtime that month.
There’s lots to like about the Esports World Cup and the kind of ecosystem it is trying to add to an already stacked calendar. After all, the industry will only grow when orgs from different corners of the world exchange information and feedback with each other, and with so much extra revenue at stake, the quality of games is uplifted as well.
Esports Charts will be covering the entire EWC 2024, and readers can get updates on this link. Those interested in diving deep into statistics, including for teams, games, and players, can check out our PRO subscription.