PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 28, 2026--
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Lenovo today announced an expanded partnership, with Lenovo becoming a Global Partner of the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC) and powering the world’s largest esports event with its high-performance Legion gaming devices.
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The EWC 2026 will be bringing the world’s largest esports event to Paris for the first time, welcoming more than 2,000 players, 200 esports teams and fans from over 100 countries between July 6 and August 23. As EWC expands into the international stage, Lenovo joins the event’s Founding Partner roster, bringing its latest Legion desktop PCs and monitors to competition arenas, training facilities, broadcast studios, and festival spaces during the seven-week event.
“We are excited to welcome Lenovo as a Global Founding Partner for the Esports World Cup 2026, as we prepare to bring thousands of players and millions of fans to Paris this summer,” said Mohammed Al Nimer, Chief Commercial Officer of the Esports Foundation. “Across seven weeks, thousands of matches, broadcast hours, and player setups, the technology behind the competition matters just as much as what happens on stage, and we are grateful to Lenovo for bringing its cutting-edge systems that will make our event possible.”
“As one of the largest gaming brands in the world, we are immensely proud to have Lenovo Legion devices powering the world’s largest esports event,” said Volker Düring, VP & GM, Gaming Business, Intelligent Devices Group, Lenovo. “Lenovo’s partnership with EWC reflects a shared commitment to enable top esports athletes to use Legion’s premier gaming devices to compete at the highest levels on the largest esports stage.”
Legion Powers Competition at One of the World’s Largest Esports Events
From competition arenas and broadcast studios to player facilities and fan experiences, Legion hardware will power key aspects of EWC 2026, enabling peak performance across one of the world's biggest esports events. EWC 2026 players will compete using Legion Tower 7i and Tower 5i desktop PCs. This year, athletes will also be competing on Legion monitors as they fight for the top podium spots.
From Competition Stage to Concept Innovation
This partnership has already inspired significant hardware innovation from Lenovo in the Legion Pro Rollable Concept, a 16” rollable Lenovo PureSight OLED technology screen showcased earlier this year at CES 2026. Designed for esports athletes who need a single portable device that allows them to train for high-level competitions around the world, this gaming laptop concept’s display expands from 16” to both 21.5” and 24” sizes. EWC attendees will be able to demo the Legion Pro Rollable in the Legion booth.
Bringing Fans Closer to the Action
Legion branding will appear across EWC 2026 broadcasts and onsite experiences, including the Legion Gauntlet stage and dedicated festival zones featuring Legion laptops, tablets, and peripherals available for fans during the event. Fans will have a chance to win Legion hardware through on-site challenges, while exclusive content featured across Legion channels during EWC 2026 will offer a closer look at the players, setups, and hardware used across the competition.
As a Founding Partner for EWC 2026, Lenovo will also feature as a major part of this year’s global campaign, appearing across creative, broadcast and fan-facing content in the lead-up to and throughout the event.
Building on a Growing Global Esports Partnership
The partnership follows Lenovo’s debut at EWC 2025, where more than 2,000 Legion devices were used across tournament operations, broadcast studios, creator zones, and festival activations. Legion branding appeared across all 24 game titles and seven weeks of international broadcasts, reaching 750 million people across multiple regions and languages worldwide.
The Esports World Cup 2026 will be hosted in Paris from July 6 to August 23, welcoming more than 2,000 players and 200 Clubs from over 100 countries to compete across 24 games and 25 tournaments for a share of the record-breaking $75 million+ prize pool.
For more information, visit the Esports World Cup and explore Lenovo Legion’s full lineup at www.lenovo.com/legion.
About The Esports World Cup
The Esports World Cup (EWC) is a premier annual sporting event and global celebration of competitive excellence and esports fandom. The competition features a unique cross-game format that pits the world's top esports Clubs against one another for the largest prize pool in esports history. Hosted in Paris, France, in the summer of 2026, the EWC will bring gaming and esports communities together again to crown the next Esports World Cup Club Champion. esportsworldcup.com
About Lenovo
Lenovo is a US$83 billion revenue global technology powerhouse, ranked #196 in the Fortune Global 500, and serving millions of customers every day in 180 markets. Guided by its vision of “Smarter Technology for All”, Lenovo is executing a Hybrid AI strategy that spans Personal AI – one personal AI, multiple devices; and Enterprise AI – helping customers turn data into insights and value. This strategy is delivered through the Group’s commitment to world-class innovation and a full-stack AI portfolio, including devices (PCs, workstations, smartphones, tablets, accessories), infrastructure solutions (server, storage, edge, high performance computing and software defined infrastructure), as well as software, solutions, and services. With a global footprint spanning more than 20 research and development locations and a global supply chain that includes more than 30 manufacturing sites across 10 markets, Lenovo is widely recognized for its operational excellence. Lenovo is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange under Lenovo Group Limited (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY). Learn more at www.lenovo.com and follow the latest news in our newsroom.
LEGION and PURESIGHT are trademarks of Lenovo. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable POC
Lenovo Powers Esports World Cup 2026 as a Founding Partner
LEGE-CAP FERRET, France (AP) — French authorities ordered nearly 4,000 people evacuated Tuesday from tourist sites on the Atlantic coast as returning heat threatened firefighters’ fragile hold on a vast wildfire west of Bordeaux.
The new evacuations deepened a wildfire emergency of exceptional scale across southwestern Europe. Fires in France and Spain have forced roughly 330,000 people to evacuate, while Spain entered its fourth heat wave of the summer with several blazes still out of control, including its largest on record.
Firefighters had held the French blaze in check through a calm night, bringing flare-ups near coastal dunes under control and keeping the burned area unchanged at 420 square kilometers (162 square miles).
Authorities described the Gironde fire as stabilized, not fixed — meaning it could still spread again as temperatures rose and humidity fell.
The precautionary evacuation order covered campsites, holiday villages, tourist residences and leisure parks around the resort of Lacanau, including Lacanau Ocean and both shores of Lacanau lake, Gironde regional authorities said.
“We are at a point of fragility,” Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France’s national firefighters federation, told BFMTV on Tuesday. “We will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures.”
The blaze, raging since last week, has been wildly unpredictable, transforming at times into a self-feeding firestorm as it burned through an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people to evacuate homes and vacation accommodation.
Even after 24 hours without further advance, officials warned that smoldering vegetation, rising temperatures and falling humidity could produce fresh outbreaks along the vast perimeter.
Firefighters and military engineers resumed work early Tuesday on tactical firebreaks designed to prevent the flames from spreading. Authorities said 103 kilometers (64 miles) of firebreaks had been completed.
Ninety-three firefighters have been injured while battling the blaze, the prefecture said.
The A63 highway remained partly closed, while rail traffic south of Bordeaux was suspended except on the route toward Toulouse.
The overnight holding action in Gironde contrasted with a clearer sign of progress in neighboring Landes, where thousands of evacuees were allowed home after a separate wildfire was fixed. The fire had displaced more than 30,000 residents and vacationers.
“The fire is fixed, which is good news in the Landes,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday evening. Regional authorities said that meant its advance had been stopped and no new fires were breaking out.
About 15,000 people were authorized to return home Monday night in Sanguinet, Parentis-en-Born and some parts of Biscarrosse.
Residents of Biscarrosse’s aviation village and a large campground were among those allowed back, although several other neighborhoods remained inaccessible.
The return marked a significant step for communities that emptied as flames swept through forests and tourist areas during the height of the summer vacation season.
Authorities warned that the Landes fire was not extinguished.
Residual hot spots, wind and drought could cause flare-ups, and surveillance and damping-down operations were expected to continue for days or possibly weeks.
The gains in both fire zones faced an immediate test Tuesday as temperatures began climbing again.
France’s national weather service placed Gironde under a yellow heat warning from midday, forecasting inland temperatures of 33 to 35 C (91 to 95 F). Southeast winds were expected across the department, with westerly sea breezes along the coast.
More than 116,000 hectares have burned across France so far this year, according to the Interior Ministry.
Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness helping fires spread and intensify in France and Spain, the European Union’s Copernicus climate service said.
Hundreds of firefighters backed by military emergency brigades and water-dropping aircraft continued battling several major wildfires in Spain, including the largest ever recorded in the fire-prone country.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Tuesday that nonstop work through the night left him “reasonably positive,” but warned that conditions could deteriorate as temperatures rose again.
Spain’s national weather service said the country was entering its fourth heat wave of the summer Tuesday, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 C (104 F) in some areas.
Authorities have evacuated some 79,000 people and ordered another 30,000 to remain in their homes during an unprecedented crisis that prompted the government to declare a national emergency for wildfires for the first time.
The greatest concern remained two large fires that had at times come close to merging into a single mega-blaze in wooded hills about an hour’s drive west of Madrid.
Another fire in the eastern province of Castellón also forced mass evacuations.
A fire burning through hilly, rural terrain in Ávila, west of Madrid, has become Spain’s largest on record, scorching more than 500 square kilometers (193 square miles), the government said. That is five times the size of Barcelona.
“Look at how the valley is burned. Look at the houses, the people,” said David Gonzalez, a 48-year-old gardener who used his van to deliver supplies to firefighters in Ávila.
“We are feeling a lot of anger and helplessness. It’s something inhuman,” he said.
Fires have burned 1,530 square kilometers (590 square miles) this year in Spain — six times the area scorched by blazes in the first half of 2025, said Sara Aagesen, the ecology minister.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for a national pact to fight wildfires made worse by climate change.
Adamson reported from Paris. Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, also contributed to this report
A control line is cut through the forest to prevent the advance of a fire in Claouey, following wildfires in the area of southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Firefighters use controlled burning to halt a wildfire that continues to spread near Cebreros, Ávila province, Spain, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Firefighters work to suppress a fire near Lacanau, as wildfires rage outside Bordeaux, France, Monday, July 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
An Blackhawk helicopter lets a Bambi Bucket full of water go over a firezone near Lacanau, as wildfires rage outside Bordeaux, France, Monday, July 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
France's President Emmanuel Macron, center, speaks to the press next to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, left, after a visit to the departmental fire and rescue operational center (CODIS) in Bordeaux, France, following wildfires in the area, Monday July 27, 2026. (Kenzo Tribouillard/Pool Photo via AP)
A firefighter works to suppress flames near Lacanau, as wildfires rage outside Bordeaux, France, Monday, July 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
A group hold a firehose and try to suppress a fire near Lacanau, as wildfires rage outside Bordeaux, France, Monday, July 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
