Saudi Esports Federation to further reward esports teams with the newly announced Gamers8 Club Awards

The Saudi Esports Federation, regulating body of the world's biggest gaming and esports event, Gamers8, is introducing a new prize format for competing esports teams at this year's upcoming edition in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Gamers8 Club Awards are a brand-new rewards format that will use a point-based system to hand out additional prizes to esports teams that take part in multiple tournaments over the eight-week duration at Gamers8 this year.

The annual event will be titled 'Gamers8: The Land of Heroes' this year and will be starting on July 6th and will run for eight weeks with it reaching its climax at an unconfirmed date in September. The 2023 event will take place in Riyadh Boulevard City and will feature competitions involving game titles such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Rocket League, Dota 2, Rainbow Six Siege, Tekken 7 and Fortnite.

The fund for the Gamers8 Club Awards will be worth $5 million and will be spread across the multiple tournaments that take place over the eight-week period. The format will utilise a point-based system to reward the clubs that compete in multiple tournaments.

The first-placed team will receive $1.5 million and 50 points, then the second place will receive $1.1 million and 35 points and all the six teams that follow afterwards will also be awarded including the eighth place who will earn $100,000 and two points.

In addition to the new rewards scheme, the regular prize pool will be up for grabs and it is set to be worth over $45 million, which triples the prize pool from last year's Gamers8 event.

This new rewards format will allow Saudi Arabia to continue investing in esports and making the nation a key destination in the esports space whilst also increasing new opportunities. Gamers8 Club Awards will help with breaking down limitations, incentivising investment as well as opening doors for further collaboration between key figures in the esports ecosystem.

Chairman of the Saudi Esports Federation, Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan, spoke on the Gamers8 Club Awards building towards a positive future in esports. He stated: "This latest announcement illustrates our commitment to realize esports' full potential and provide development opportunities for all as the industry's evolution unfolds."

Prince Faisal also touched on what the new format will lead to within the esports realm as a result. He said: "As the world's elite esports champions return to Gamers8 to battle it out for glory and global supremacy, they do so knowing that this new concept will elevate competition, broaden gamers' horizons, and open up a whole new world of possibilities over the coming years."

In order for players to be eligible for the Gamers8 Club Awards, the teams they are members of must compete in at least two competitions at the event. Despite some teams not planning on competing at multiple tournaments, the overall objective of the Gamers8 Club Awards is to showcase how the rewards aspect of esports will only evolve and will ultimately revolutionise the esports market in the years to come.

The prize ceremony for the Gamers8 Club Awards will be held after the completion of the eight-week event at the Next World Forum which will take place at the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh in Kingdom Centre. The forum, which revolves around esports and bringing together industry experts, will see the presentations take place for the teams which finished in the reward-winning positions.

The ceremony will be able to be viewed from live streams available on the official YouTube and Twitch channels of both Next World Forum and Gamers8.

This new format introduced by the Saudi Esports Federation is the nation's latest investment venture into the esports landscape as Saudi Arabian esports group, Savvy Games Group (SGG), who have Prince Faisal as its Vice Chairman, revealed plans for nearly $38 million in investment last September.

Also, last year SSG acquired the esports organiser ESL and the esports platform FACEIT for a combined price of $1.5 billion and merged the two entities into ESL FACEIT Group.