From the moment it was announced that League of Legends would be included in the tournament, the Esports World Cup held in Saudi Arabia garnered significant attention. Especially after they announced the participating teams featuring big names like T1, Gen.G, BLG, TES… Thus, League of Legends fans couldn’t help but look forward to thrilling matches between the top teams.
However, just a few days before the tournament takes place, EWC 2024 was called out by a former world champion for being too “stingy.” Specifically, JackeyLove recently had a livestream where he revealed that his team (TES) was only sponsored for economy class airfare to attend EWC 2024. Subsequently, TES had to pay out of pocket to upgrade to business class to ensure the highest safety for their flight.
“You know, EWC only sponsored us with economy class tickets. Then TES had to pay out of pocket to upgrade to business class for the team members. I believe other teams are also facing this issue but they haven’t spoken up,” JackeyLove shared during the livestream with a rather upset tone.
In recent years, Esports tournaments held in Saudi Arabia have been known for being extremely well-funded. In fact, EWC 2024 was marketed as “the largest Esports tournament in history” with a total prize pool across all games reaching up to $45 million (approximately 1.1 trillion VND). Even previous tournaments under the Gamers8 banner showcased extremely “lavish” visuals, catering to gamers “to the fullest.”
Perhaps this is why JackeyLove felt frustrated when his team was only sponsored for economy class tickets. It’s important to note that from the announcement of the EWC 2024 schedule, League of Legends has been suspected of being treated as a “stepchild” of the tournament. This suspicion stems from the fact that the League of Legends matches here are only scheduled for one week. In contrast, the game regarded as League of Legends’ “counterpart” – DOTA 2 – has a match schedule stretching over three weeks. Combined with JackeyLove’s comments, these suspicions have more grounds.
Of course, EWC 2024 is a tournament featuring a plethora of games with a massive number of players from all over the world participating. Perhaps this is why the organizers decided to only sponsor economy class tickets to reduce the financial burden. However, when compared to the “lavish” images used by the tournament organizers for advertising, this move (if true) seems quite puzzling to both the audience and the players.
It can be said that in recent times, the EWC 2024 tournament has faced quite a bit of controversy regarding League of Legends. Hopefully, with the participation of top names, the quality of matches at EWC 2024 can overshadow these unnecessary troubles mentioned above.