The Esports Foundation (EF) has officially opened global applications for its 2026 Creator Program, committing a $2 million financial pool in rewards to back an expansive influencer co-streaming framework.

The cross-tournament initiative will deploy across both the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026, taking place at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from July 6 to August 23, and the inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC) 2026, scheduled for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this November.

According to a press release, the campaign serves as the foundational pillar of the organisation’s long-term media strategy, aiming to scale its decentralized broadcasting footprint to over 5,000 approved content creators globally.

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The program marks an intentional scaling of the broadcast model that anchored the group’s prior media delivery. During the 2025 competitive cycle, the organiser onboarded 3,500 independent co-streamers as a primary viewership vehicle, decentralising the official tournament feed across distinct languages, regions, and platforms.

Under the 2026 layout, approved internet personalities across networks like Twitch, YouTube, Bilibili, Huya, and CHZZK will receive direct access to official match feeds alongside specializsd creator tools and platform discoverability perks. Participants will progress through an interactive, gamified “Battle Pass” and leaderboard system, completing tournament-level missions to unlock hardware, gift cards, streaming upgrades, and physical event invitations for themselves and their local communities. Applications are open at this link.

Global Esports Industry Week (GEIW) will return in 2026 with a bigger and bolder edition, taking place across 18–21 June in Cologne, Germany, alongside IEM Cologne. The schedule and details about ticket sales are available in this link.

Evaluating the consumer landscape driving the investment, Wasae Imran, Director of Broadcast & Distribution at the Esports Foundation, remarked: “This isn’t just an esports trend; it’s a media trend. Across music, video, news and sport, audiences don’t just watch what they’re given anymore. They choose their own experience: what to watch, where to focus, and how deep to go. Esports just lives further down that road than most, and traditional sport is heading the same way. It’s not about delivering a match in one format, it’s about opening up every way into the same moment and letting fans choose how they want to consume it.”

The heavy financial allocation into independent channels comes amid massive expansion for the central EWC circuit, which is set to feature 2,000 players from over 100 countries competing across 25 tournaments for a $75 million prize pool. By actively funding an alternative 5,000-channel creator matrix, the Esports Foundation continues its multi-layered and multi-channel strategy to reach the wider gaming audience, as explained by CEO Ralf Reichert in an interview with The Esports Radar in 2025.

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