Over 2,000 elite players from across the world are competing fiercely for the record-breaking prizes at the 2025 Esports World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia.
The 2025 EWC opened on Thursday evening with a star-studded opening ceremony. Running until August 24, the event features more than 2,000 elite players, 25 tournaments across 24 leading titles, and a record-breaking prize pool of over 70 million U.S. dollars.
For the first time, the tournament brings together the world's top 200 clubs to compete across multiple game titles in a unique cross-title format.
The grand event features the world's most popular games such as Dota 2, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), Valorant, and Chess.
"I wouldn't know where it's the game, at the moment, I think I will be equally poor at everything," said Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen.
At the heart of the competition is the Club Championship, where teams accumulate points across multiple games to become the EWC club champion.
"I think EWC is not just a tournament, it's like a platform. I think [for] the clubs and companies from China, they would have more opportunity for collaboration with others, especially with overseas companies or clubs," said Teri Zhang, senior director of the Esports Business Department of Chinese internet giant Tencent.
Over 2,000 gamers battle for record-breaking prizes at Riyadh’s Esports World Cup
Over 2,000 gamers battle for record-breaking prizes at Riyadh’s Esports World Cup
China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met with visiting German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul in Beijing on Monday, and called on German companies to seize opportunities and deepen cooperation with Chinese partners in traditional and emerging sectors.
Wang noted that economic and trade cooperation between China and Germany has helped both sides develop industrial integration, interconnected markets, and complementary technologies, stabilizing and deepening bilateral relations, while also promoting the healthy development of China's trade and economic relations with the European Union (EU).
"We welcome German companies to seize new opportunities, consolidate cooperation in traditional sectors including machinery, automobiles, and chemicals, and tap the potential for cooperation in emerging businesses such as clean energy, intelligent manufacturing and biopharmaceuticals," said Wang.
Wang also noted that the current trend of politicizing trade and economic issue is on the rise, and global industrial and supply chains are being severely disrupted as a result. China and Germany, as well as China and the EU, should uphold free trade and safeguard the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core, Wang said.
Wadephul said Germany opposes protectionism and considers China its most important trading partner. He added that Germany wants to maintain and expand the positive momentum of cooperation.
"China is a driver of innovation and a major hub for high technology in many aspects. We are very keen to maintain exchanges with China both economically and scientifically," said Wadephul.
China and Germany are the world's second and third biggest economies. According to German data, China was once again Germany's largest trading partner in the first three quarters of this year.
China’s commerce minister meets with German FM, calling for deepening cooperation
