World Esports Championship 2024 to feature $400,000 CS2 prize pool

The next edition of the nations-based esports event will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The International Esports Federation (IESF) has announced that the 2024 World Esports Championship will include two CS2 tournaments with a combined prize pool of $400,000. The open competition will feature 24 teams and a $240,000 prize pool, while the women's tournament will see 16 teams duke it out for $160,000.

Counter-Strike 2 is one of the five game titles that will be played at the 16th World Esports Championship, which will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, later this year (specific dates have not yet been announced). The event will feature a record prize pool of $1 million across all tournaments.

The announcement of the host nation was made in September 2023, just months after Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family and Chairman of the Saudi Esports Federation, became the Statutory Vice President of the IESF.

The road to the World Esports Championship will begin with national qualifiers, which will be followed by regional qualifiers. The slot allocation for each region is as follows:

Following the regional qualifiers, 24 open and 16 female teams will travel to the main event in Riyadh, where a round-robin group stage will lead to a single-elimination playoff bracket. For more information on the format, IeSF has released this video.

The top eight teams in each category will be awarded a share of the prize pool, with the open winners taking home $100,000 and the women's winners $50,000.