EWC Announce The 40 Clubs They Will Be Partnering With

The Esports World Cup Foundation have announced the 40 clubs they will be partnering with for the year 2025. 

The 40 clubs were unveiled in a video on the foundation's social media page

The 40 clubs in contention include:

1. 100 Thieves
2. All Gamers
3. Bilibili Gaming
4. Cloud9
5. Edward Gaming
6. EVOS
7. FaZe Clan
8. Fnatic
9. FURIA
10. G2 Esports
11. Gaimin Gladiators
12. Gen.G
13. Gentle Mates
14. HEROIC
15. JD Gaming
16. Karmine Corp.
17. Movistar KOI
18. LEVIATAN
19. LOUD
20. MOUZ
21. NAVI
22. NIP.eStar
23. ONIC
24. POWR
25. REJECT
26. S8UL
27. Sentinels
28. T1
29. Team BDS
30. Team Falcons
31. Team Liquid
32. Team RRQ
33. Team Secret
34. Team Spirit
35. Team Vitality
36. Twisted Minds
37. Virtus.pro
38. Weibo Gaming
39. Wolves Esports
40. ZETA DIVISION

The clubs are a mix of clubs from various regions including China, Japan, LATAM, EMEA, and North America.

The Esports World Cup 2025 will take place in the summer and will feature both Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 as the fighting games in contention. 

The Esports World Cup Foundation is a fund set up by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a means to provide sustainability to the esports ecosystem. The partner clubs will be eligible to receive funding from the EWC, up to $1 million to help the business out in all areas including content creation and audience growth. The partnership is up for review annually which means that the 2026 might feature different clubs, depending on how things have gone the year before. 

Also, a spot as a partner does not automatically qualify the club for the EWC later in the year and all clubs are required to qualify via the official channels. 

This will likely lead to clubs scrambling to sign up fighting game players to represent them at this year's event.