- Over 100 countries and territories will wear custom adidas national jerseys at the Esports Nations Cup (ENC), equipping every team competing across 16 of the world's most popular esports titles.
- The inaugural four-week event is set to take place starting November 2, 2026 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. National team jerseys will be revealed in the coming weeks.
- The partnership directly supports the ongoing convergence of esports, culture, entertainment and sports, creating a defining moment for the esports industry and the global sport landscape.
Media Kit
Watch Announcement Video
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia and HERZOGENAURACH, Germany, July 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Esports Foundation (EF) and adidas made sports history today, announcing a landmark partnership that will see the sportswear company outfit every national team at the inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC), the first nation-based esports event of its scale, set to debut November 2, 2026 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The partnership directly supports the ongoing convergence of esports, culture, entertainment and sports, creating a defining moment for the esports industry and the global sport landscape.
As Official Kit Partner and a Global Partner of ENC, adidas will design and produce custom competition apparel for the more than 100 participating countries and territories, with each delegation – including 2,000 athletes and coaches – receiving uniquely tailored jerseys and tracksuits that reflect their national identity while celebrating the global spirit of esports competition. National team jerseys will be revealed in the coming weeks. Fans can follow the national team jersey reveals at esportsnationscp.com/jerseys.
"National team jerseys carry identity, pride and the ambition of an entire country or territory," said Mohammed Al Nimer, Chief Commercial Officer, Esports Foundation. "By partnering with adidas, one of the most iconic brands in global sport, we are giving esports athletes the opportunity to represent their nations on the world stage with the same sense of meaning and prestige seen across traditional sport. This partnership will help the Esports Nations Cup create powerful national moments and inspire a new generation of players and fans."
"At adidas, we've spent decades outfitting athletes at the world's biggest sporting events, and we understand the role a jersey plays in identity, belonging and competition," said Phillip Waller, adidas SVP Brand Development. "The Esports Nations Cup gives us the opportunity to bring that experience into esports at a global scale."
The Esports Nations Cup introduces nation-based competition to the global esports calendar in a structured and recurring format. By enabling countries and territories to organize their teams, develop talent pathways, and compete on a global stage, the ENC provides a framework for expanding participation and strengthening esports ecosystems worldwide.
The Esports Foundation has worked to establish the global structure of the ENC through the appointment of Official National Team Partners, National Team Managers, and more than 700 national team coaches across 100 countries and territories. Drawn from over 90 leading esports organizations, the coaches oversee player selection and team development across the world's top esports titles, helping bring the first large-scale national team ecosystem in esports to life ahead of the event in Riyadh.
For the latest information about the Esports Nations Cup, visit esportsnationscup.com, and follow ENC on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
About the Esports Nations Cup
The Esports Nations Cup (ENC) is a biennial global esports competition created by the Esports Foundation (EF) 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
The ENC features a $20 million prize pool with equal pay per placement, ensuring players and coaches receive the same prize money for the same finishing position across all 16 titles. Backed by a $45 million overall funding commitment, the ENC also includes a $20 million Development Fund that supports National Team Partners, local esports ecosystem development, travel, and national team operations.
About the Esports Foundation
The Esports Foundation (EF) 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), EF 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.
About adidas
adidas is a global leader in the sporting goods industry. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the company employs more than 65,000 people across the globe and generated sales of € 24.8 billion in 2025.
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Esports Foundation and adidas Announce Landmark Partnership to Outfit Every Team at the Inaugural Esports Nations Cup
Scientists used a new error correction method to encode 70 logical qubits and crack a classically intractable problem.
The quantum computation finished in approximately 15 minutes — a task that would demand infeasible amounts of time with leading classical computing methods.
YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. and CHICAGO, July 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and researchers from the University of Chicago today announced a demonstration in quantum computing that achieves the fundamental criteria for quantum advantage: performing computations beyond the reach of leading classical simulation methods while providing trust that the computation returned accurate results.
In their new paper, "Sampling hard circuits with verifiably high fidelity," the researchers showed that these two goals could be simultaneously achieved by a novel construction of encoded quantum circuits, enabling one of the largest demonstrations of logical quantum computing to date. These circuits and their results are also now openly released on the Quantum Advantage Tracker.
Building Trust into Quantum Results
For years, researchers have used a benchmark known as random circuit sampling (RCS) to test whether quantum computers could outperform classical systems. In simple terms, RCS asks a quantum computer to generate patterns so complex that a classical computer cannot efficiently reproduce them. The challenge has been verification: as the problem becomes harder, it becomes increasingly difficult and then infeasible to prove the quantum computer's answer is correct, without making strong assumptions about the inner workings of the quantum computer.
In their experiment, researchers from IBM and the University of Chicago have addressed this obstacle with a structured alternative to RCS. The team was able to prove that this alternative retains the same hardness criteria as RCS, but crucially the new structure can be used to detect errors during the computation.
"Verification remains one of the biggest challenges in firmly establishing experimental quantum advantage," said Bill Fefferman, Associate Professor at the University of Chicago. "This experiment develops techniques to better characterize the fidelity of hard quantum states under noise, increasing confidence that the quantum computer is solving a computationally hard problem."
Soumik Ghosh, PhD student in Fefferman's group at the University of Chicago, added, "Beyond strengthening experimental validation, advances in verification have the potential to unlock practical applications for the next generation of quantum computers."
In one of the world's largest-known error correction demonstrations, the team executed 70 logical qubits — shielding them from errors to run 2,415 logical two-qubit operations and 468 logical "T gates," both metrics that quantify the complexity of a quantum circuit. Because the circuit was encoded, the logical computation was able to achieve effective logical error rates that were 10 times lower than the physical error rates, enabling the remarkably high circuit fidelity even at the large gate counts.
"We are now firmly in the quantum advantage era," said Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow. "We have demonstrated a quantum computation beyond the practical reach of classical computers that establishes, with statistical confidence, a lower bound on how faithfully it was executed. This milestone gives scientists, developers, and businesses a new foundation for trusting quantum computers as they scale to problems far beyond what we can achieve classically."
The team showed many leading classical simulation approaches faced prohibitive runtimes — while the IBM quantum computer took approximately 15 minutes to accomplish the task.
Error correction, and trust in the computation's output, are essential milestones towards scaling quantum computing — and this work marks a significant step on the path forward.
More Demonstrations of Quantum Advantage Emerge
Today, alongside this milestone from IBM and the University of Chicago, partners from across IBM's ecosystem are announcing more demonstrations of quantum advantage with trusted computations. To learn more, visit https://www.ibm.com/quantum/blog/quantum-advantage.
About the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a leading academic and research institution that has driven new ways of thinking since its founding in 1890. As an intellectual destination, the University draws scholars and students from around the world to its campuses and centers around the globe. The University provides a distinctive educational experience and research environment, empowering individuals to challenge conventional thinking and pursue field-defining research that produces new understanding and breakthroughs with global impact.
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.
Media contacts:
Brittany Forgione
IBM
Brittany.Forgione@ibm.com
Erin Angelini
IBM
edlehr@us.ibm.com
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IBM and The University of Chicago Demonstrate Quantum Advantage, Establishing Trusted Quantum Computation on Logical Circuits
IBM and The University of Chicago Demonstrate Quantum Advantage, Establishing Trusted Quantum Computation on Logical Circuits
