Thorin gave advice to the organizers of the Esports World Cup on increasing the prestige of LoL and CS2 tournaments

Esports journalist Duncan Thorin Shields discussed the status of the League of Legends and Counter-Strike 2 championships as part of the Esports World Cup festival. Shields believes that organizers need to change the format of the competition so that it competes with other prestigious events in these disciplines.

Do the Saudis really not understand that their tournaments lack prestige not because of politics or lack of recognition from the developers, but purely because of the format? Make League of Legends and Counter-Strike tournaments with double-elimination brackets and they instantly become some of the best tournaments of the year. For now, I understand that the organizers want to bring together a huge number of different disciplines at one event, so they use such formats. Former ESL employees will probably tell you that these are the formats needed to logistically host all the tournaments at once. But because of this, in every major esports discipline, the EWC is still perceived as just a regular or minor tournament.

Esports World Cup is an annual multi-gaming esports festival. In 2026, it will host competitions in 24 disciplines. $2 million will be up for grabs at the LoL and CS2 tournaments. Both championships will be held in two stages: the group stage and the playoffs according to the Olympic system.