EWC Play 2026 guide: Pick’Em, Fantasy League, and $300,000 prize pool

Owen Harsono Published 11/07/2026

For the 2026 edition, the Esports World Cup has released the EWC Play, which is a limited-time event that lets you predict match outcomes and build your dream lineups akin to Pick’Ems. It’s a great way to get involved in the action, but you’ll also have a chance to win real money in the process. Intrigued? Here’s everything you need to know about the Esports World Cup Play event!

What is the Esports World Cup Play Event?

The EWC Play is a free-to-play digital hub that lets you join the action of the ongoing event. Here, you can play two prediction modes:

Pick’Em Predictions: Here, you can predict the outcome of upcoming matches and which team will win the entire tournament.
Fantasy League: This game mode lets you build the best possible roster with a limited amount of money.

On top of these two games, you can also complete simple quests that will also grant you points upon completion.

The goal of the event is to collect as many points as possible from getting correct picks, creating strong fantasy teams, and completing simple quests. By getting points, you can rank yourself on the leaderboards, where you’ll compete with other players doing the same thing.

Players with the highest points will find themselves at the top of the leaderboards, where they’ll receive real prize money depending on their ranking – we’ll touch on this more at the end of the article.

How to Play the EWC Play Event

You can participate in the Esports World Cup Play event by going directly to the official EWC website.

Before you can play, you’ll have to register an account, which is completely free of charge. Here’s how:

Head to the official Esports World Cup Play page.
Then, register an account. You can link your Google, Apple, Twitch, or Discord account if you’d like.
Accept the terms and conditions, and you’re good to go!

After creating account, here’s how you can make the most out of the event:

Pick’Em Predictions

In the Esports World Cup Play event, you can test your knowledge through Pick’Em predictions. All EWC games will be available including Valorant, Dota 2, Fatal Fury, MLBB, and more.

Under each title, you’ll see a list of upcoming matches. Here, you can predict the outcomes of each match, including which team will win the series, and what the final score will be.

Image credit: Esports Foundation

You will also have the option to predict the winner of each title’s tournament, but you need to lock in this pick before any match starts.

By placing predictions and getting them right, you’ll earn points. So, the more matches you predict, the more points you can earn – make sure to log in everyday so you don’t miss out on upcoming matches.

Fantasy League

The second game mode is the Fantasy League, where you get to build your dream team across different games.

Here, you’re given $5 million in virtual currency, and you’ll have to draft a team of five players. Each player comes in varying price tags, and you’ll need to budget accordingly.

Image credit: Esports Foundation

Once the event starts, your players will start raking in points based on their performance, like getting kills, assists, objectives, and more. There’s also a twist, as dying will make you lose points instead.

So, the amount of experience you receive per player will vary. The challenge is getting the best players at a limited budget. Make sure to watch the Esports World Cup matches so you know which players to draft.

Quests

You can also complete Quests to earn experience points. You can complete simple tasks like maintaining a login streak, placing daily picks and more. Completing quests is a very easy way to rake in points to rank yourself higher.

Esports World Cup Play Leaderboards and Rewards

So, what are you accumulating experience points for? Well, the answer is simple: $300,000 in real money.

The goal of this event is to collect points and rank yourself against other participants in the leaderboards. The players at the top of the chart will receive real money. For example, the player with the highest overall score will receive $10,000.

The $300,000 is distributed evenly into three categories:

Overall Rankings – $100,000: All experience points along the entire Esports World Cup festival.
Weekly Rankings – $100,000: If you’re starting late – don’t worry – there is a weekly leaderboard that resets every week ($10,000 per week).
Fantasy Leagues – $100,000: Fantasy rankings divided between five titles, meaning you can only choose the games you’re familiar with ($20,000 per title).

Featured image credit: Esports Foundation

Owen Harsono

About Owen Harsono

Owen lives for competition, spending most of his gaming hours on Dota 2, CS2, and Valorant. A regular on the SEA Dota 2 leaderboards, he combines his first-hand experience with a deep passion for esports journalism, following the professional scenes of all three esports betting titles religiously. When he’s not writing, he’s most probably betting on esports and watching the latest events.

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