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ENC to elevate global esports by establishing a structured national ecosystem that supports players, Clubs, and National Teams — backed by a groundbreaking development fund, Club incentives, and equal pay per player across 16 titles.
ENC 2026 Debuts November 2-29 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
[Media Kit]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) today announced the competition dates and prize model for the Esports Nations Cup 2026 (ENC), the new global esports competition built around national teams, national pride, and iconic rivalries. The ENC is set to debut in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from November 2 through 29, 2026.
The Esports Nations Cup adds a national layer to the global esports calendar. It complements the Club-based Esports World Cup by giving players the chance to represent their nation, and offering fans a direct way to connect with elite competition through identity, pride, and shared moments.
ENC 2026 is backed by a three-part funding commitment totaling $45 million, structured to support the esports ecosystem through player and coach prizing, Club release incentives, and national team development.
ENC 2026 includes $20 million in prize money paid directly to players and coaches across 16 titles. In addition, EWCF will provide $5 million in Club incentives for esports Clubs that release and enable their professional players to participate in ENC, with rewards tied directly to the performance of their players at the event.
EWCF will also provide $20 million through the previously announced ENC Development Fund, supporting Official National Team Partners with logistics, travel, program operations, national team marketing, and the long-term growth of national team pathways.
"National teams bring a powerful new layer to esports, one that is accessible, intuitive, and rooted in identity and pride," said Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation. "Clubs are the cultural backbone of esports. Nation-based competition expands the stage, creates new rivalries, and gives more fans a reason to care from day one. Our prize model is designed to keep competition fair and sustainable, rewarding performance while supporting the long-term development of players, Clubs, and national programs."
The ENC introduces a placement-based prize framework, applied across all game titles, designed to be clear and player-centric. Every qualified participant earns prize money and is guaranteed a minimum of three matches. Equal placement earns equal pay: the same finishing position pays the same amount per player across all titles, and coaches are rewarded alongside players for the same placement.
A first-place finish awards $50,000 per player, whether competing in a solo title or as part of a team. Second-place awards $30,000 per player, and third-place awards $15,000 per player. For team titles, payouts scale with the roster size, so the result is consistent and transparent for everyone competing.
The ENC will launch in Riyadh in November 2026 and will move to a rotating host-city model, bringing nation-based esports to major cities around the world. The event will be held every two years to provide a dependable structure that supports long-term planning for players, partners, and national programs.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Trackmania, Dota 2 have already been confirmed for ENC 2026, with additional titles to be announced in the coming days.
Additional information about the Esports Nations Cup will be released in the coming weeks. To stay up to date, visit esportsnationscup.com and follow ENC on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and follow the Esports World Cup Foundation on LinkedIn.
About the Esports Nations Cup
The Esports Nations Cup (ENC) is a biennial global esports competition created by the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) that brings national pride to the world stage. Launching in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2026, the ENC will feature the world's best players competing not for their Clubs, but for their countries and territories, across a lineup of leading esports titles. Built in collaboration with game partners, Clubs, and esports organizations, the ENC establishes the first recurring, large-scale platform for national teams in esports. Beyond competition, it aims to fuel fandom, inspire heroes, and provide sustainable pathways for nations, players, and partners to grow within the global esports ecosystem. esportsnationscup.com
About Esports World Cup Foundation
The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) is a non-profit organization based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, dedicated to advancing and professionalizing the global esports industry. Through the annual Esports World Cup (EWC) and the biennial Esports Nations Cup (ENC), EWCF brings together the world's top players, leading Clubs, and millions of fans for the biggest stages in competitive gaming. Beyond hosting tournaments, the Foundation works year-round to grow the esports ecosystem, support talent development, and create lasting opportunities for players, teams, and partners worldwide.
ENC to elevate global esports by establishing a structured national ecosystem that supports players, Clubs, and National Teams — backed by a groundbreaking development fund, Club incentives, and equal pay per player across 16 titles.
ENC 2026 Debuts November 2-29 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
[Media Kit]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) today announced the competition dates and prize model for the Esports Nations Cup 2026 (ENC), the new global esports competition built around national teams, national pride, and iconic rivalries. The ENC is set to debut in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from November 2 through 29, 2026.
The Esports Nations Cup adds a national layer to the global esports calendar. It complements the Club-based Esports World Cup by giving players the chance to represent their nation, and offering fans a direct way to connect with elite competition through identity, pride, and shared moments.
ENC 2026 is backed by a three-part funding commitment totaling $45 million, structured to support the esports ecosystem through player and coach prizing, Club release incentives, and national team development.
ENC 2026 includes $20 million in prize money paid directly to players and coaches across 16 titles. In addition, EWCF will provide $5 million in Club incentives for esports Clubs that release and enable their professional players to participate in ENC, with rewards tied directly to the performance of their players at the event.
EWCF will also provide $20 million through the previously announced ENC Development Fund, supporting Official National Team Partners with logistics, travel, program operations, national team marketing, and the long-term growth of national team pathways.
"National teams bring a powerful new layer to esports, one that is accessible, intuitive, and rooted in identity and pride," said Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation. "Clubs are the cultural backbone of esports. Nation-based competition expands the stage, creates new rivalries, and gives more fans a reason to care from day one. Our prize model is designed to keep competition fair and sustainable, rewarding performance while supporting the long-term development of players, Clubs, and national programs."
The ENC introduces a placement-based prize framework, applied across all game titles, designed to be clear and player-centric. Every qualified participant earns prize money and is guaranteed a minimum of three matches. Equal placement earns equal pay: the same finishing position pays the same amount per player across all titles, and coaches are rewarded alongside players for the same placement.
A first-place finish awards $50,000 per player, whether competing in a solo title or as part of a team. Second-place awards $30,000 per player, and third-place awards $15,000 per player. For team titles, payouts scale with the roster size, so the result is consistent and transparent for everyone competing.
The ENC will launch in Riyadh in November 2026 and will move to a rotating host-city model, bringing nation-based esports to major cities around the world. The event will be held every two years to provide a dependable structure that supports long-term planning for players, partners, and national programs.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Trackmania, Dota 2 have already been confirmed for ENC 2026, with additional titles to be announced in the coming days.
Additional information about the Esports Nations Cup will be released in the coming weeks. To stay up to date, visit esportsnationscup.com and follow ENC on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and follow the Esports World Cup Foundation on LinkedIn.
About the Esports Nations Cup
The Esports Nations Cup (ENC) is a biennial global esports competition created by the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) that brings national pride to the world stage. Launching in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2026, the ENC will feature the world's best players competing not for their Clubs, but for their countries and territories, across a lineup of leading esports titles. Built in collaboration with game partners, Clubs, and esports organizations, the ENC establishes the first recurring, large-scale platform for national teams in esports. Beyond competition, it aims to fuel fandom, inspire heroes, and provide sustainable pathways for nations, players, and partners to grow within the global esports ecosystem. esportsnationscup.com
About Esports World Cup Foundation
The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) is a non-profit organization based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, dedicated to advancing and professionalizing the global esports industry. Through the annual Esports World Cup (EWC) and the biennial Esports Nations Cup (ENC), EWCF brings together the world's top players, leading Clubs, and millions of fans for the biggest stages in competitive gaming. Beyond hosting tournaments, the Foundation works year-round to grow the esports ecosystem, support talent development, and create lasting opportunities for players, teams, and partners worldwide.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Esports World Cup Foundation Confirms $45 Million Commitment to Players, Clubs and National Teams for Inaugural Esports Nations Cup 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Most simulation pipelines can model facilities, equipment, and routing with high accuracy—but often miss a key driver of real-world performance: human operations. Operator cycle-time variation, work sequence differences, and station placement/material flow can materially impact throughput and safety, yet human behavior is still commonly simplified into idealized paths.
Reallusion has been closing that gap through years of collaboration with enterprise teams and world-class brands—building a simulation-ready, real-time stack designed to replicate real-world scenarios with believable, repeatable human operations.
With the latest launch of Motion Planning, Reallusion connects everything it has built into a complete simulation workflow. It adds a modular, scalable logic layer that links people, actions, and environments—so teams can run large-scale, human-centric simulations that are logical, repeatable, and easy to validate.
Check out the full trailer
A Complete Simulation Solution for Replicating the Real World
Reallusion provides a connected set of tools that scale from individual human actions to system-level, repeatable simulation logic:
1) Control an individual human's actions
- Motion Director: control characters in real-time with motion triggers and behavior controls for responsive, natural actions.
- Personal Mobility: recreate how people travel with different transport devices, capturing natural speed, spacing, and movement patterns for pedestrian and mobility scenarios. For example, an operator pushing a trolley
2) Control groups and movement at scale
- Crowd Sim: create crowd movement, density, and flow for large-scale scenarios.
3) Simulate human interaction with tools and the environment
- Prop Interaction: simulate task-level interactions with equipment, stations, and objects (operate, pick/place, handle).
- Smart Accessory: built-in rules assign the right tools (and variations) to the right people at scale for realistic working conditions.
4) Build the environment context
- BuildingGen: generate buildings, interiors, warehouses, and production lines quickly from customizable blueprints and packaged modules to stand up a layout context for scenario testing.
- Prop Distribution: place and standardize assets across scenes for consistent, repeatable setups.
5) Orchestrate everything with modular logic at scale
- Motion Planning: connect workflows across areas with modular, reusable logic—so you can run large scenarios with hundreds of people, repeatedly.
The Industry's Largest Asset Ecosystem for Any Simulation Scenario
Reallusion's solution is supported by the largest asset ecosystem in the industry—led by ActorCore, which provides premium simulation-ready digital humans, props, and motion assets for operational workflows. Combined with Reallusion's Content Store and Marketplace for additional props and environments, teams can stand up scenarios faster, standardize assets across repeated runs, and adapt to different sites and industries—without spending cycles building everything from scratch.
With assets spanning a wide range of use cases—from factory operations and facility planning to driving and public-space scenarios—teams can quickly find the right people, equipment, and motions for the simulation they need.
What's New: Motion Planning Makes Simulation Modular and Scalable
Motion Planning is a major step forward because it turns simulations into reusable systems, not one-off scenes. At its core is an intuitive node-graph workflow that makes simulation logic visual and easy to manage—so teams can build, review, and expand behaviors without getting buried in scripting.
With Motion Planning, teams can:
- Reuse modular building blocks: assemble scenarios fast and standardize proven setups
- Connect multiple areas into one flow: link zones, lines, and routes into a continuous simulation
- Iterate and compare changes quickly: test layout/process updates and run repeatable before/after comparisons
- Scale without losing control: expand to higher-volume runs while keeping logic consistent and maintainable
- Validate with measurable feedback: use logs and on-screen indicators for real-time review and analysis
In short, Motion Planning adds a visual, modular layer that helps teams iterate faster, stay organized as projects grow, and scale simulations with confidence.
Capture Real-World Human Operations with Video Mocap
To increase fidelity and enable flexible customization, the newly released Video Mocap turns standard video footage of real operations into editable 3D motion. It's a practical way to capture actual operator work sequences and cycle times—using ordinary cameras, without specialized motion-capture hardware—so teams can simulate more realistic handling, walk paths, and handoffs for more credible validation and comparison.
Proven Across Industries
Reallusion's human-centric simulation solution has been adopted across digital twins, AV simulation, security and surveillance, consumer electronics, and pedestrian traffic—by teams at brands including NVIDIA, Google, Samsung, LG, BMW, Ford, Toyota, Hyundai, GM, Motorola, and Axis Communications.
Building on that foundation, the latest Motion Planning and Video Mocap updates have also been evaluated with industry partners: Delta Electronics and Foxconn—global industrial leaders in electronics and manufacturing—used the workflow to support plant planning, while relative.berlin—a Berlin-based CG/AI studio known for immersive (VR/AR) experiences—evaluated it through a VR immersive experience project for the German government.
Integration-Ready for Digital Twin Pipelines
For teams building in existing digital twin projects, Reallusion also supports smooth downstream USD workflows to NVIDIA Omniverse (and other DCC/real-time tools).digital humans, props, lights, and cameras can be transferred efficiently—supporting collaboration, review, and optimization in the environments many digital twin teams already use.
Reallusion's Vision for Simulations
Reallusion delivers the most realistic human factors available for simulation, so digital twins and operational models can reflect how people actually work in the real world. From subtle individual behavior to large-scale operational scenarios, Reallusion's system combines human realism with modular, logic-driven workflows—helping teams replicate real operations as closely as possible, from quick what-if studies to scalable, validation-ready simulation runs across industries and use cases.
Book a live demo with Reallusion's team
Resources for Faster Industrial Setup
In practice, scaling human-centric simulation depends on reusable modules and interactions that teams can standardize across scenarios. Alongside the free starter content included in iClone, Reallusion provides Motion Planning content packs that accelerate industrial scenario buildout and offer consistent starting points:
Ready-made factory scenarios: 12 factory scenarios (Assembly, Production, Transport, Maintenance, Inspection, and more), plus 25 interactive machines/tools and 73 worker action motions—so teams can assemble, modify, and test factory workflows faster without building everything from scratch.
Interactive industrial devices: 15 interactive devices (valves, levers, control panels, and more) that digital humans can operate precisely—enabling realistic, orderly interactions with factory equipment for more credible industrial simulations.
These resources help teams move from proof-of-concept to repeatable scenarios faster—without having to author every template and interaction from scratch.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Reallusion Expands to a Complete Human-Centric Simulation Solution
