What went right and what went wrong with Dota 2 at EWC 2026

We’re a few days out from the conclusion of Dota 2 at the Esports World Cup 2026, to give its overly-long official name, and what a mixed bag of an event it was. Great underdog runs from Rune Eaters and Nigma Galaxy, a deserved victory for PARIVISION, a team of familiar and easily supportable players. A big payout for teams, and a preview of what could be at The International 2026.

But it was also an event of disappointments. Historically low viewership, dead crowds for days, and a match-fixing scandal that threatens an entire region. EWC has been positioned as one of the biggest events on the calendar, and something to rival TI and perhaps surpass it. This year it was a side show to a greater event, overwhelmed by rival publishers’ titles. From an on-site perspective, gathered from personal experience and first hand accounts, the EWC in 2026 for Dota has had a few problems.

Problems in Paris

In the early days of the event you could have been forgiven for thinking this was a low-tier tournament. Empty seats, maybe a dozen attendees, while VALORANT fans screamed the house down just a few dozen meters away. Stages spread across a convention center, with one stage on an island completely separated from the rest.

While attendance grew over the week, and by Sunday, there was a packed arena with hundreds of attendees, this is not the TI-rivaling event we’re expecting. Unless it’s TI1, tucked in the corner of a larger convention, that we’re trying to emulate.

On broadcast, things were a little low-key. Graphics and overlays seem recycled and reused. Scores and names are sometimes bugged out or were just not working. For an event on its third edition, it feels oddly unpolished. Perhaps due to the last-minute move, on top of the fact everything to do with the EWC is already handled last-minute.

Then there’s the format. This has got to have been one of the worst formats ever created for Dota 2. A best-of-two groups, four total groups, with 1v1s for tie breakers. Players didn’t even remember the 1v1 rules, and they were barely explained to viewers and attendees because the one 1v1 that did happen wasn’t even expected.

Then a strange survival stage, leading into a single elimination playoff bracket. If you were a top team in groups, you sat in the practice room for six days, waiting for your time to play a team that could have just had three extra days of competitive Dota. And this is all without mentioning the PlayTime removal/disqualification and potential match-fixing.

While most formats are designed around schedule and broadcast these days, rather than competitive integrity and quality of matches, there was something extra contrived about this one. As if someone said “We have 12 days to fill, design a format that takes 12 days to complete” and this format came into being.

There were of course some highlights. Many of the matches, of course, were amazing. Jake Kanner, Sir Action Slacks, and the rest of the broadcast team for once again hitting it out of the park with skits and video content. From jabs taken at League of Legends to mock movie trailers, it was incredible. Huge props to Evan "Raynday" Raynr and Ghassan "Milosh" Finge, who seamlessly integrated into the Dota 2 broadcast despite coming from other games. And a heap of praise for Mike "permasneeze" Tsang on his first tier one Dota LAN cast, looking like a natural alongside veteran Chan "WinteR" Litt Binn. We’re at a point where the talent, newcomers and oldheads, are just so good, that they make everything seem easy and every moment feel bigger than perhaps it really is.

But amid this fantastic backdrop, there’s definitely some sour notes. These incredible moments happened in the shadow of other tournaments at the EWC, and felt pushed to the back. There’s some reasoning to this. The Super Fan program, which had filled EWC 25 with attendees (with a clear bias towards one or two teams), has been downsized for 2026, partially because there’s no instant visa waivers available. I’m also reliably informed that in France, despite having one of the greatest Dota 2 esports players of all time, Sébastien "Ceb" Debs, hailing from here, the game is just not that popular compared to League of Legends. But that can only explain so much.

EWC giving up on Dota 2

Is EWC giving up on Dota 2? It’s hard to say. Behind the scenes, the game has a huge amount of support. But the messaging has also changed. Dota 2 isn’t positioned as a top esport at this event anymore. It’s one of just two or three games that the interests behind the Esports World Cup don’t have a vested interest in.

In the first week, Dota 2 was scheduled against Fatal Fury: CotW (Developed by SNK, which is wholly owned by Mohammed bin Salman Foundation), Apex Legends (Owned by EA, who are now almost wholly owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund), and VALORANT (Created by Riot Games, a subsidiary of Tencent, who PIF-backed Savvy Games Group have a $265 million dollar stake in). Week 2 wasn’t much better, counter programmed by League of Legends (Tencent again), Mobile Legends Bang Bang (Moonton, owned by the Savvy Games Group), and Free Fire (Garena owned, mostly independant).

But it's this demotion that perhaps makes this decline so egregious: This entire project began as a Dota 2 tournament. The seed that grew out from Gamers Without Borders and Riyadh Masters became the Esports World Cup in 2024, although for some reason, the tournament refuses to accept the lineage. From production to organizers and staffers, there’s veterans who’ve been with this project for five editions now.

We’re now at the point where the prize pool is $2 million lower than the original Riyadh Masters tournament. And while you might think that would be a breaking point for players, you’ve got to remember that for the majority of them, this tournament is still one of the better ones on the calendar.

Players still love the EWC

The player areas at the EWC in Paris are second to none, the catering top notch, and the player care and management is at the same level many have come to expect in Riyadh. Hotels are still five-stars (a requirement for the tournament) but the last-minute nature and the fact this is Paris, perhaps the most popular city tourist destination in the world, means there’s less rubbing shoulders with esports stars from other games: The competitors are spread across multiple hotels, with a slight variation in quality and distance to the venue.

But the simple fact this event is in Paris is a boon. Depending on their placement in the tournament, players have had between three and six days of time to enjoy the city, and there’s a lot to see. Typically for pro players, many opted to spend their time in the practice rooms at the venue, but social media shows that some at least some headed out to experience the sights, or at least Disney Land, which is an hour or so away. And the food and drink in Paris are pretty exceptional. You can basically get any cuisine you want at a world-class level for a very affordable price. This all leads into a player experience that’s pretty much fantastic all around.

There’s pain points, of course. At this event transport has been an issue for some. While players and talent are obviously prioritized, there’s been long waiting times and crossed wires. The practice areas, large cubicles set up in a convention hall, aren’t strictly secure, and earlier in the week VALORANT players had reported thefts from that area. Security eventually caught up, but running into pesky things like labour laws, maximum working hours, etc. (things that just aren’t a concern in Riyadh) mean these problems took longer to fix.

There’s also some more structural issues. Players have long bemoaned the long pay-out times of EFG-organized events (compared to PGL and Valve), and this event will likely be no different. We live in a Dota 2 ecosystem where (some) player salaries are enough to support them while they wait for these pay-outs, but it's also TI season, and this is the time of the year to make sure you’re travelling around and finding your teammates for next year, so some extra scrilla to fly to China for TI, participant or no, would be much appreciated. The format, as mentioned, is horrible. But these are all the kind of thing players forgive. After all, almost every experienced Dota 2 player has event horror stories now, and EWC definitely wouldn't be the first tale they'd tell if they were sharing war stories about badly organized events.

What does the future hold for Dota 2 at EWC? I’d guess it’s going to stick around, although I can see the prize pool falling even lower. With Dota 2 part of the ENC’s list of games, and EWC likely desperate to prove in 2027 that Riyadh is a superior host than Paris, there’s little chance they’ll rock the boat by kicking a game to the curb. But as the years progress, and Dota itself shrinks, perhaps this event is a sign of things to come for the overall scene.