South Korea’s premier internet conglomerate Naver Corporation has announced an expanded partnership deal with the Esports Foundation (EF) under which its game streaming platform, Chzzk, will exclusively livestream all 25 events of the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC 2026) in Korean.
This expanded coverage follows Chzzk’s broadcast of 15 tournament titles last year. Under a three-year agreement running through 2027. For this year’s tournament, Chzzk will provide Korean-language commentary for nine of the most popular esports titles among Korean audiences, including League of Legends, VALORANT, PUBG: Battlegrounds and Overwatch. The remaining titles will feature Korean commentary during the finals, while English-language broadcasts will include real-time AI-generated Korean subtitles.
According to Naver, the AI subtitle system has been developed to recognise esports terminology and match context, allowing for more natural translations during live broadcasts with low latency. In addition to live tournament coverage, Chzzk will offer exclusive original content throughout the event: Streamers will travel to Paris to produce on-site broadcasts featuring the tournament atmosphere, player reactions and fan experiences.
The Esports World Cup 2026 will run from July 6 to August 23 in Paris. The tournament brings together leading professional teams across 25 game titles and offers a total prize pool of more than $75 million.
Shin Seul-gi, Leader of Naver Game Content Partnership, said (translated from Korean), “As the EWC is an esports festival where globally popular titles and diverse fandoms come together, Chzzk plans to provide a viewing environment that combines broadcasting of all titles with AI-based convenience features and co-watching content, allowing fans to enjoy familiar titles more deeply and new ones more easily.”
The EWC announcement is the latest in a series of esports moves by Naver. A few weeks ago, the company teamed up with KRAFTON through a new MoU to support the growth of PUBG: Battlegrounds esports using the Chzzk platform. Last year, Riot Games also partnered with Naver in a five-year deal for the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), with Naver and SOOP serving as the streaming platforms for LCK matches in South Korea.
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