Bali announced as host for the 2022 World Esports Championships Finals
31 January 2022
After a successful 13th edition of the World Esports Championships in 2021, which were held in the Israeli seaside resort Eilat and saw a record 85 nations from all over the world compete for glory, the International Esports Federation (IESF) has recently announced Indonesia as the host for one of international esports most important events this year. The beautiful island of Bali will be home to the 14th World Esports Championships from November 27th, 2022, to December 8th, 2022.
Building history
The IESF has organized the World Esports Championships since 2009, when the first edition took place in the South Korean city of Taebaek. On the international esports calendar, these championships still represent the only official event where players can represent their countries and compete for medals. For the 2022 edition, including the regional and national qualifiers, over 120 countries are expected to compete for a spot in the final rounds, which will start towards of the end of November this year.
Details about the qualifiers and the final rounds are expected soon, but it can safely be assumed that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, DotA 2, Tekken 7, and Pro Evolution Soccer 2022 (known nowadays as eFootball 2022) will be the categories for players and countries to compete it. “Big thank you to the President of the Indonesian Olympic Committee and to the entire Indonesian team here with us”, said Vlad Marinescu, President of the IESF, after the host location for the WEC 2022 was announced, “We appreciate your support and we look forward to seeing the biggest and most inclusive World Esports Championships in history! We are bringing the largest and freshest sport to this beautiful tropical destination for the first time”
The International Esports Federation and the World Esports Championships
The International Esports Federation (IESF) is a global organization that is working to get electronic esports recognized as a legitimate sport. It was founded in 2008 in the city of Busan, South Korea, by nine national esports associations, including South Korea, the Netherlands, Germany, and Taiwan. Nowadays, the IESF counts over one hundred member associations from five different continents and organizes the annual world Esports Championships, regarded as the biggest multi-sport event in international esports in the world.
In order to achieve its goals, the IESF has signed several agreements and collaborations over the past years. We recently wrote about the promising new partnership between the IESF and the Esports World Federation (EWF), while the organization can also count on a signed Memorandums of Understanding with the International School Sports Federation (ISF) and the Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF), just to name a few examples. By bringing together important international esports stakeholders from all over the world, the IESF aims at creating a united ecosystem for the development of sustainable and responsible gaming worldwide.