2025 Esports World Cup Titles Confirmed This Week

Also more musing on an impending cancer treatment plan...

Dec 06, 2024

Whether you like it or not, my dear reader, you are a passenger on my journey to tackle cancer. On Thursday I learned what my treatment plan looks like, and the long and short of it is 35 sessions of radiation targeting my voice box, or seven weeks of daily, 15-minute treatments.

While my family is asking questions about eating, and side effects, all I can think about is, “will I be able to work?”

I don’t believe in vacations. The only time I have ever taken off has been to deal with a funeral or a marriage.

I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do with myself if I’m not working, and these last several months have been incredibly hard and disappointing, as my output for this newsletter and The Esports Advocate has suffered immensely.

Yeah I have a problem, a sick addiction, maybe one that is worse than smoking.

Hang in there with me, keep me in your thoughts and prayers, and please continue to be on this journey with me, because at the end of the day this is about you too. You matter to me, because an artist needs an audience.

And for something to lighten the mood - playing Skyrim as a criminal is hilarious. If you Legendary pickpocketing, you can get a skill at 100 that allows you to steal equipped items from NPCs. One of the items you can steal is the actual clothes they are wearing. Imagine that you are talking to someone and then suddenly you are in your underwear! Stealing the clothes off a guard to make them naked is hilarious, and it’s kind of like that trick where someone pulls a tablecloth off a fully set table. I can’t stop laughing at all the naked people walking around Whiterun right now. Anway, that’s what I’m doing to keep myself entertained these days!

Thanks for reading. Let’s talk about what exciting things happened this week in the world of esports and gaming news - James.

Esports World Cup Confirms Multiple Titles for 2025

The Esports World Cup Foundation made multiple announcements this week on the competitive titles that have officially joined the eight-week-long competition that will take place sometimes this summer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Esports World Cup is funded by a sports grant from the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund.

Titles announced so far include Capcom’s fighting game Street Fighter 6, Activision Blizzard shooters Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty Warzone, Tencent’s MOBA Honor of Kings, SEA LTD’s popular PC and mobile battle royal game Free Fire, Ubisoft’s tactical team-based shooter Rainbow Six Siege, and Valve’s PC-based MOBA Dota 2.

Most of these are returning titles, but Free Fire is a particularly big get for the competition as it is one of the most popular games in the world outside North America (it is ultra-popular in Asia and Brazil). We suspect other games that were included in the 2024 edition of the competition will be included, along with a few new entries—including MOONTON’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang; Tencent/Krafton’s PUBG and PUBG Mobile; Riot Games’ League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and Valorant; Valve’s other popular title Counter-Strike 2; a football title (EA FC or Konami’s eFootball); Epic Games’ Rocket League and Fortnite; and maybe even EA’s battle royale game Apex Legends, among others…

While organizer the Esports World Cup Foundation describes itself as a non-profit that is funded by a sports grant from the Saudi Government the event has deep ties to wholly owned government-owned entities such as the Saudi Esports Federation, Savvy Games Group, and its subsidiary ESL FACEIT Group (which facilitated many aspects of the eight-week event last year).

ESL FACEIT Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of government-owned Savvy Games Group— whose Chairman of the board is Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler HRH Crown Prince MBS. EFG is home to tournament organizer ESL, Esports Engine, competition platform FACEIT, and esports and gaming festival company DreamHack.

M80 Acquires Beastcoast

M80 of esports organization Beastcoast for an undisclosed amount. The move will see M80 integrate Beastcoast’s top esports teams and media business into its existing operations. From what was disclosed in the announcement, it appears that M80 will not utilize the brand going forward and will instead roll portions of Beastcoast's business into its own operations. Beastcoast's media business garnered 175M views annually across its social media and content creations platforms, according to the release.

Through the deal, M80 will take over Beastcoast's DOTA 2 team, its Pokemon-focused media business, and key personnel, including CEO Grant Zinn. Zinn will join the company as its new chief business development officer, "where he will support M80’s expansion and double-down on fandom in exciting, but underserved esports like Pokemon and fast-growing regions like South America," according to a release.

“M80 and Beastcoast have a lot of mutual respect for the communities we’ve built – and now we’re ready to take it to the next level” said Marco Mereu, M80 Founder and CEO. “This move will bring M80 into key new esports titles like DOTA 2, allow us to reach and support new fans, and continue the breakneck momentum we’ve maintained since launching M80 just a year ago.”

M80 also noted in its announcement that this acquisition comes with additional capital investments into M80, but did not disclose where that investment was coming from.