EWC unveils new format for CS2 in 2026

Counter-Strike Editor

Publish Date: October 10, 2025

The Esports World Cup (EWC) has announced a new format for its CS2 tournament in 2026. The Saudi event will expand from 16 to 32 teams and feature a $2 million prize pool. For comparison, EWC offered a $1.25 million prize pool for CS2 in 2025.

And that’s not all, the format will change radically in 2026, as EWC will introduce a double-elimination group stage with four groups of eight teams. The top four teams of each group will advance to the playoffs, which will use a single-elimination bracket.

This is a huge change, given that all the teams had in EWC 2025 was a single-elimination bracket from start to finish. But this new format comes with the consequence of having to play an extra week. This could affect the CS2 calendar as a whole, as there are already some tournaments overlapping with one another at the moment, like PGL Bucharest Masters 2025 and IEM Chengdu 2025 in November.

The best thing about the CS2 tournament in EWC 2026 is the fact that the Saudi operator is introducing a $100,000 open qualifier. Players will compete on LAN at the Esports Boulevard in Riyadh for four of the 32 available slots.

This open qualifier will run from August 7 to 9, and will welcome up to 128 teams. EWC will release more information about it soon.

Here’s a full breakdown of the CS2 format for EWC 2026:

Schedule and format

The MongolZ won EWC 2025, the last one to feature the original format. Credit: Viola Schuldner | © Esports World Cup

The competition starts on August 12 with Stage 1 and concludes on August 23 with the grand finals.

Stage 1: A 32-team group stage featuring four groups of eight teams competing in double-elimination brackets. Opening rounds matches will be best-of-one, with the remaining matches being best-of-three.
Stage 2: A 16-team single-elimination playoff bracket. All matches will be best-of-three up until the grand final, which will be best-of-five.

Qualification info

21 invites will be sent based on the global Valve Regional Standings (VRS) of June 2026
2 invites will be sent based on the North American VRS (not including teams in the Top 21 globally)
2 invites will be sent based on the South American VRS (not including teams in the Top 21 globally)
2 invites will be sent based on the Asian VRS (not including teams in the Top 21 globally)
1 invite will go to the Asian Champions League 2026 winner
4 invites will be sent to the top teams of the open qualifier

Prize pool breakdown:

1st: $600,000
2nd: $340,000
3rd: $190,000
4th: $110,000
5th-8th: $60,000
9th-16th: $35,000
17th-23rd: $20,000
24th-32nd: $10,000

That’s all the information available for the EWC CS2 tournament in 2026. The Saudi operator also confirmed this week that the EWC 2026 will feature 20 games.

Feature image credit: © Esports World Cup