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Six Brazilian clubs will run their country's national teams together. The Esports Foundation announced on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, on its account on X, that an alliance of Fluxo W7M, FURIA, LOUD, MIBR, paiN Gaming and Red Canids is Brazil's national partner for the Esports Nations Cup, its new competition between national teams, Sheep Esports reported the same afternoon.
The appointment came with a wider announcement. In a release datelined Riyadh the same day, the foundation said it had awarded the status of National Team Partner to organizations and individuals in more than 100 countries and territories. Spain is one of them: a joint bid of Spanish clubs and a league organizer was selected there, according to Sheep Esports.
Esports Foundation release of March 25, 2026, and Sheep Esports, March 25, 2026.
Six rivals under one flag
For the Esports Nations Cup, the six clubs will act as one body. According to Sheep Esports, the alliance will promote the teams and players that Brazil sends to the event.
The role of a national partner goes further than promotion. As Sheep Esports described it, the partner coordinates the country's national representation, oversees and supports the coaches chosen for each game, deals with the publishers of those games and with clubs, and mobilizes local communities through marketing campaigns, social media and collaborations with content creators. The January call for applications, as Sheep Esports reported it, had framed the same job in its own terms: national partners coordinate their country's participation through institutional communications, marketing campaigns, fan activations and the development of the local ecosystem.
The foundation's own release names Brazil for a second reason. Among the national gaming traditions it lists as part of the case for national teams, it places Counter-Strike in Brazil, beside League of Legends in South Korea, chess in India, fighting games in Japan and mobile games in Southeast Asia. Counter-Strike is one of the games on the program of the first edition, beside Valorant, League of Legends and Rocket League, according to Sheep Esports, and online qualification tournaments are planned for the event.
Related readRocket League at the Esports Nations Cup: 22 nations qualifyFive ways to build a national team
The foundation did not choose one model for every country. Its release describes a range of structures among the partners it selected, with examples for each, and Brazil is one of its two examples of a coalition of clubs.
| Model | Examples named |
|---|---|
| National bodies | Korea Esports Association, Saudi Esports Federation |
| Club-led coalitions | Brazil, the United States |
| Public-private alliances | Germany, Canada, United Arab Emirates |
| Federations with grassroots groups | Malaysia, Turkey, Thailand |
| Emerging regions with development support | Indonesia, Mongolia |
Esports Foundation release on National Team Partners, March 25, 2026.
The foundation said the network marks the first time esports has introduced a structured global system for national teams at scale, and that the Esports Nations Cup is designed to complement existing frameworks rather than replace them. The release says the partners include long-established esports organizations as well as newer groups. The full list is published on the event's website, and the foundation said it would be updated as more appointments are confirmed. Where no partner has been named, the foundation said it would support the country's teams through regional structures of its own.
The scale of the response is the other figure of the day. The foundation received more than 630 applications from 150 countries and territories, according to its release. Ralf Reichert, the chief executive of the Esports Foundation, said the response from around the world showed that communities were ready for this next step.
How the partners were chosen
The selection began in January. Sheep Esports reported on January 8, 2026 that the foundation, then writing as the Esports World Cup Foundation, had opened applications for official national partners. The call was open to national esports or sports federations, established esports organizations, player agencies, esports clubs and individuals with recognized expertise in their national scene. The foundation encouraged joint applications from several complementary stakeholders, the outlet said.
Related readFourteen nations qualify for Valorant at the Esports Nations CupThe process had two phases. The first, open until January 31, checked basic eligibility: legal registration, standing with game publishers and the capacity to represent a country. Preselected candidates were then invited to a second phase, open by invitation only, that looked at their understanding of the local scene, their real presence in the community and their operational capacity, among other points.
Brazil's answer, a single bid from six clubs, is the kind of joint application the foundation said it wanted. The same logic shaped the American choice. The Esports Advocate reported on March 25 that USA Esports, a non-profit public charity set up as a prospective national body for esports in North America, had been selected to build and send the United States teams to the first Esports Nations Cup in Riyadh later in the year, after a joint application with the United States Esports Federation. Daniel Clerke, its esports director, was named national team manager and will lead team selection. Jesse Bodony, president and chief executive of USA Esports, told the outlet that the process had several stages and that the foundation asked each candidate for details of its legal structure, its national connections and its marketing plans.
Spain's joint bid
Spain went the same way as Brazil, with one difference. Its selected bid joins five clubs and a competition organizer: Team Heretics, GIANTX, Movistar KOI, UCAM and Barça eSports, together with LastLap, which Sheep Esports describes as the new organizer of the Spanish League of Legends circuit.
That makes Spain's partner a mix of teams and the company that runs the league they play in at home. Brazil's partner, as announced, is made of clubs only. In both countries, clubs of the same domestic scene now share responsibility for a single national project.
Related readFIFAe Finals 2026 set for Jeddah with three world titles in OctoberClubs that lend players also have money at stake. The Esports Advocate wrote that the foundation said in January that about US$5 million would go to club incentives, rewards for professional clubs that release their players to compete for their countries, tied to how those players perform at the event.
What a partner receives
Being named partner is a license to take part, with support attached. According to Sheep Esports' January report, selected partners receive an official participation license, operational support from the foundation and access to the Esports Nations Cup Development Fund, which the outlet said is endowed with US$20 million a year. The travel and accommodation of the teams are covered.
Each partner must also appoint a National Manager, whom the foundation approves and who serves as the operational link with it. Sheep Esports reported that a National Manager can earn up to US$25,000: US$5,000 in guaranteed service fees and up to US$20,000 in incentives tied to performance.
The partner does not choose the players itself
Under the structure described in January, the partner appoints a National Manager, the manager oversees the choice of a coach for each game, and the coaches build the rosters. Brazil's six clubs therefore start at the top of that chain, not at the end of it.
Five weeks to name the players
Brazil's calendar is short. Sheep Esports reported that the coaches for each game must be selected and approved by the national team manager by March 31, six days after the announcement, and that players across the games must be chosen by the end of April.
Those deadlines have moved slightly since January. When applications opened, Sheep Esports gave March 29 for the submission of coaches and April 26 for final rosters, with the first partners to be announced in March. The March 25 report puts the short window partly down to the foundation's other commitments, among them the Esports World Cup, its summer event for clubs, scheduled from July 6 to August 23.
Some rules of representation were set from the start. Sheep Esports reported in January that teams from Russia and Belarus may not display national flags, except in one-against-one solo titles, and that Taiwan competes as Chinese Taipei with a limited neutral flag, following the Olympic protocol in place since 1981. The outlet described the structure as a three-tier system of national representation, with the national partner as its first tier.
The event itself is set. The first Esports Nations Cup is to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from November 2 to 29, 2026, according to the foundation's release. Sheep Esports describes an event with thousands of participants from about 100 countries across nearly 16 disciplines. After Riyadh, the foundation plans to hold the competition every two years, alongside the annual Esports World Cup, and to move it between host cities.
What comes next
The next date is March 31, when Brazil's coaches must be in place. The players follow by the end of April, under the deadline reported by Sheep Esports.
The foundation, for its part, said in its release that more details of the Esports Nations Cup would follow in the coming weeks, and that the list of partners would grow as appointments are confirmed. Sheep Esports noted in January that the event's website recognizes more than 200 countries and territories; those without a partner are to be supported through the foundation's regional structures.
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