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More than 500 cameras that follow their subject on their own will be running at the Esports World Cup when it opens in Paris on July 6. The Esports Foundation, the organization that runs the event, said on Friday, June 26, 2026 that the Chinese camera maker OBSBOT is its Official Camera and Webcam Partner for 2026, and set out where the devices will go: all four competition stages, the player lounges, the mixed zones where players meet the press, and the Fan Fest, the festival around the tournaments.
It is the company's second year in that role, in what both the 2025 and the 2026 announcements describe as a two-year partnership. What changes in 2026 is the scale and the setting. A year after a first edition with OBSBOT in Riyadh, the foundation now puts a figure on the network, more than 500 cameras, and spreads it through a single venue in a new host city, from the stages where the matches are played to the rooms where players prepare.
Esports Foundation press release of June 26, 2026. Camera figures and features are the organizer's and the manufacturer's own.
Where the cameras go
The June 26 release describes a network that covers far more than the broadcast of the matches. The cameras are meant to film what happens on stage, but also what happens before and after a match, and to feed several kinds of content at once: the event's own production, the work of creators, and dedicated production for the clubs.
| Place | What the release says the cameras cover |
|---|---|
| Four competition stages | The matches, for broadcasts and live event coverage |
| Player lounges | Pre-match preparation and post-game debriefs, in a documentary style |
| Mixed zones | Interview spaces, with the same documentary-style coverage |
| Fan Fest | The festival grounds, and an interactive booth with camera challenges and live demos |
Esports Foundation press release of June 26, 2026.
Beyond these four places, the release lists the kinds of footage the cameras will produce: broadcasts, creator productions, player interviews, trainer footage and live event coverage. Clubs, the word the Esports World Cup uses for the organizations whose teams compete, will get dedicated content production, and a real-time content program will capture event highlights and player features for distribution across the channels of the event and of OBSBOT.
Related readHLTV Launches a Closed Beta of Its Own AI Stats AssistantA mixed zone is the space where players stop to speak to reporters and broadcasters after they leave the stage. The release ties the cameras placed there, and in the player lounges, to what it calls documentary-style coverage of pre-match preparation and post-game debriefs.
Two models, two jobs
The release names two OBSBOT models for 2026: the Tail 2 and the Tiny 3. It gives three features for the deployment as a whole: AI-powered tracking, 4K images, and full compatibility with NDI and SDI, two connection standards of professional video production.
The Tail 2 was already part of the first year. In its announcement of May 15, 2025, the foundation described it as a 4K PTZR live production camera with AI Tracking 2.0, designed for smooth shots with minimal manual input, and able to plug into professional broadcast setups through NDI and other outputs. The PTZ in that name stands for pan, tilt and zoom, the movements of a camera that turns, tilts and frames its shot without a person behind it. In 2026 the Tail 2 is also the model the release says is available to streamers, creators and Clubs worldwide.
The second model changes with the year. The 2025 announcement named the Tiny 2, presented then as OBSBOT's flagship webcam, compact enough to sit on a desk, with tracking of its own. The 2026 release names the Tiny 3 instead.
How a tracking camera fits into a broadcast
A tracking camera follows its subject by itself: software in the camera keeps a person in frame as they move, which the foundation's 2025 announcement summed up as smooth shots with minimal manual input.
Related readLeague of Legends at the EWC 2026: equipment, patch and Chronobreak rulesThe two connection standards named in the release decide how the images reach the production. SDI, short for serial digital interface, is the traditional cable connection of television, carrying video from a camera to a broadcast truck or a control room. NDI, short for Network Device Interface, carries video over an ordinary computer network instead, which makes it possible to bring many sources into one production without a dedicated cable for each.
From Riyadh in 2025 to Paris in 2026
The first year of the partnership was played in Riyadh, where the 2025 edition ran from July 7 to August 24. In its May 15, 2025 announcement, the foundation said OBSBOT would supply its latest devices for player areas, streaming stations and venue activations. The June 26, 2026 release adds what the cameras were then used for: the Opening Ceremony, the EA Sports FC showmatch between Ronaldo and Kaká, EWC Boxing Night and community events.
| Point | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Host city | Riyadh | Paris |
| Dates | July 7 to August 24 | July 6 to August 23 |
| Models named | Tail 2 and Tiny 2 | Tail 2 and Tiny 3 |
| Number of cameras | Not given | More than 500 |
| Places named | Player areas, streaming stations, venue activations | Four competition stages, player lounges, mixed zones, Fan Fest |
Esports Foundation announcements of May 15, 2025 and June 26, 2026.
The 2026 edition was first announced for Riyadh. On May 20, the foundation confirmed that it would move to Paris, keeping its titles and formats. On May 27, it named the venue: Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, which it said would hold the competition arenas, the broadcast operations, the fan activations and the festival experiences of the event. The foundation's release on the venue noted that the site has hosted Paris Games Week since 2010 and was the largest venue of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The event the cameras will film
The Esports World Cup 2026 runs for seven weeks, from July 6 to August 23. According to the June 26 release, it brings together more than 2,000 players and 200 Clubs from more than 100 countries, for 25 tournaments in 24 games. Above the separate tournaments sits the Club Championship, a competition across games that the foundation's venue release describes as spanning shooters, strategy, sports, MOBAs, battle royales, fighting games, racing games and chess.
Related readHow MSC 2026 rules handle phones, headsets and lag in Mobile LegendsTickets for the Paris edition went on sale on May 29, the foundation said, with passes for every day of one game's tournament, single-day passes, and seating zones for the final days of select titles, among them Valorant, League of Legends, Rocket League and Counter-Strike 2.
The broadcast the cameras feed
The footage feeds a production the foundation measures in hundreds of millions of viewers. In its release of January 20, 2026 on the prize pool and the schedule, the foundation gave its own figures for the 2025 edition: a reach of 750 million viewers worldwide, 350 million hours watched, and a peak of 7.98 million people watching at the same moment, during the League of Legends tournament. The 2025 broadcast, by the same count, was carried on 28 platforms, by 97 broadcast partners and on more than 800 channels, in 35 languages.
Co-streaming adds to that audience. In its release of June 11, 2026, the foundation described its 3,500 co-streamers of 2025, creators who broadcast the event on their own channels with their own commentary, as one of the key growth pillars of its viewership. It opened applications that day for a 2026 Creator Program with US$2 million in creator rewards and a target of 5,000 creators, covering the Esports World Cup in Paris and the first Esports Nations Cup in Riyadh in November. The camera release, for its part, lists creator productions and a real-time content program among the uses of the network, and names the Tail 2 as a model available to creators.
The 2025 edition also drew more than 3 million visitors in Riyadh over its seven weeks, according to the January release. The Fan Fest in Paris, where the 2026 release places cameras and an interactive booth, is the festival side of the event.
The clubs are the other group the release names. According to the January release, US$30 million goes to the 24 best clubs of the championship in 2026, US$3 million more than the year before, with US$7 million for the winning club. The release on the cameras lists dedicated production for clubs among the uses of the network.
The partner and what it says it brings
The release presents OBSBOT as a camera maker founded in 2016 in Shenzhen, China. It adds that the partnership supports the foundation's plan to link Chinese esports with its global ecosystem.
Mohammed Al Nimer, the foundation's chief commercial officer, is quoted in the release on the role of player stories in esports and on the cameras as a way of bringing those moments to fans. In 2025, the foundation's announcement had quoted him as its senior sales director, on the place of technology at the event. Liu Bo, OBSBOT's chief executive, speaks for the company in both releases.
Neither release gives financial terms. What the June 26 announcement sets out is the deployment: more than 500 tracking cameras, two models, four stages and the spaces around them, in place for the opening day on July 6.
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