BESF considered as ENC National Team Partner

Last year, the Esports Nations Cup (ENC) was announced by the Esports World Cup Foundation. It will be a tournament akin to the Esports World Cup but for nations instead of clubs. The ENC will be hosted every two years with tournaments for a whopping 16 different titles. The first edition will be hosted in November in Riyadh, with a mix of qualifications and direct invites in the period of June until August. A 20 million dollar prize pool will be divided equally across all of the titles, with each 1st place player receiving 50.000 dollars!

BESF as National Team Partner

The EWCF will be working together with one National Team Partner per participating country/region. National Team Partners will serve as the official national counterparts for the ENC 2026, within their respective countries and territories, with the responsibility of building and representing their national esports teams on the global stage. In partnership with the EWCF, they will coordinate team representation for the ENC, oversee and support national team coaches per game title, and coordinate with game partners and Clubs within the ENC framework. Since the BESF has been responsible for managing the Belgian national teams for over 10 years, we feel that we are a logical partner for the ENC and have applied for the position of National Team Partner. We have put forward our commissioner for National Teams & Competitions, Samy Bessi as the potential National Teams Manager. He brings a wealth of experience as ex-VP of one of the biggest esports organizations worldwide, as professional player manager and as manager of our national teams in the past. The ENC will decide on the National Team Partners at the start of March.

Regional development fund

Furthermore, the EWCF has also announced a 20 million dollar regional develepmont fund. The Fund will support national team programs by covering travel and logistics for participation in the Esports Nations Cup, and by enabling promotional and fan-facing activities that build relevance, awareness, and engagement around national teams beyond the main competition. The National Team Partner will get access to this fund and are also responsible for setting up or supporting activities that help develop the national esports ecosystem and help achieve the goals of the ENC. The BESF is very happy with the holistic approach that the EWCF seems to be taking with the ENC and especially the development fund. If the BESF is chosen as the National Team Partner then we will involve as many stakeholders as possible to help shape a strategy for the Belgian part of the fund. According to the feedback we have received from previous stakeholder meetings, the focus will be on developing grassroots initiatives and better connecting them with the (inter)national competitions. Expanding the Esports Events Incubator seems like a logical first step.

Next steps

Once again, the importance of active stakeholder participation in this process can not be understated. Therefore, we're doing an open call to everyone that wants to get involved in this exciting, new process. Since, the ENC will have 16 titles, there will be many games that we don't have national teams or players for yet. So we're especially looking for people that are active in the relevant communities around the ENC titles in Belgium and people that could take up the role of game coach. However, anyone active within the Belgian ecosystem with the proper motivation is welcome.

Supported by those who apply through the form below, we'll first start forming staff teams for each of the ENC titles, including the game coaches. With experienced coaches / sports psychologists / coach developers such as Matthew Watson and Rupert Hoop, we have the support staff to train and support new coaches and staff. Unfortunately, time will realistically be too short to organize national qualifications so we'll mainly have to work with player selections by the coaches and staff. 

Finally, the development of the ENC framework in Belgium and the use of the regional development fund will be the topic of future stakeholder meetings and working groups. We'll look at how we can use the ENC to best support our local ecosystem. Based on past stakeholder feedback, we'll focus on supporting grassroots initiatives and integrating them with the national teams & competitions and the ENC framework. If you want to be involved in developing a strategy and concrete actions for this, then definitely apply below!