EWC Week 8 watch guide - matches you don't want to miss

The final week of the inaugural Esports World Cup is upon us. Week 8 will feature four esports competitions – premiere fighting game title Tekken 8 will start things off alongside PUBG, and the two games rounding out the lineup are Rocket League and R1.

EWC 2024 is going out with a bang, so let’s get into all of the information required to watch Week 8 and the matches in each tournament that will be must-watch bouts. There’s something for every esports fan this week!

Esports World Cup: Tekken 8

Esports World Cup: Tekken 8 is the second fighting game title in the Esports World Cup following Street Fighter 6. The tournament will bring 32 of the best Tekken 8 players in the world and seed them into four eight-player GSL groups.

The Second Phase of the tournament will narrow the groups down to four of four players each, and the Third Phase will feature eight players in a playoff bracket.

If you have to pick one group to watch, watch Group C solely based on the fact that it features the EVO 2024 champion. Last month in Las Vegas, NV, Arslan "Arslan Ash" Siddique won his fifth EVO title by placing 1st in Tekken 8, and he will start off trying to defend his status as best Tekken player in the world in a group of three of South Korea’s best.

Wednesday 8/21 -17:00 UTC +3

Thursday 8/22 - 17:00 UTC +3

Friday 8/23 - 18:00 UTC +3

Esports World Cup: PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS

Esports World Cup: PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS will bring 24 of the top PUBG squads from around the globe together in Riyadh, starting with a Group Stage. The bottom eight teams from the Group Stage will be eliminated; the top 16 will advance to a 12-match Grand Finals in the standard SUPER format.

Let’s put it frankly – EWC: PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS is Twisted Minds’ events to lose. The #1 ranked team in the world are overwhelming favorites to take the tournament, and expectations will be high as they take on the competition in Riyadh.

Wednesday 8/21 -18:00 UTC +3

Thursday 8/22 - 18:00 UTC +3

Friday 8/23 - 18:00 UTC +3

Saturday 8/24 - 12:30 UTC +3

Sunday 8/25 - 12:30 UTC +3

Esports World Cup: ESL R1

ESL and RENNSPORT have teamed up to bring 12 of the top squads from the R1 circuit to compete in Riyadh this week. The Driver Championship will take place on the first day, and the Team Championship will be played across the remainder of the week.

All eyes will be on the top-rated player and team in the respective ESL R1 2024 season standings. Australian driver Joshua Rogers will be looking to bring glory to Porsche Coanda in the Driver Championship, and Team Redline – led by 2nd highest rated player behind Rogers, Kevin Siggy – are over 100 points ahead of 2nd place Team Vitality in the standings heading into EWC: ESL R1.

Thursday 8/22 - 16:10 UTC +3

Friday 8/23 - 16:10 UTC +3

Saturday 8/24 - 16:10 UTC +3

Sunday 8/25 - 12:10 UTC + 3

Esports World Cup: featuring Rocket League

Rocket League, like R1, is a game with cars…and that’s about where the similarities end. Rocket League’s infectious combination of demolition derby and football (soccer for our American readers) is coming to Riyadh in the form of 16 invited teams. The 3v3 competition will kick off in a group stage made of four groups with four teams each. The matches will be best-of-five format and the group scoring will be GSL format. The top two teams from each group will advance to the best-of-seven playoffs.

The top two squads at EWC: featuring Rocket League are Team Vitality and Team BDS, but Team Falcons, who have had an excellent EWC 2024 thus far, could try and add on to their 7,000 Club Championship Points that clinched them 1st place in the EWC Club Standings last weekend.

Thursday 8/22 - 14:00 UTC +3

Friday 8/23 - 14:00 UTC +3

Saturday 8/24 - 14:00 UTC +3

Sunday 8/25 - 13:30 UTC +3