Overview
- S8UL said Monday it will field teams across 12 games at the Esports World Cup 2026 in Riyadh, which offers a $75 million prize pool.
- The club also signed Indian Chess Grandmaster Pranesh M to join Nihal Sarin and Aravindh Chithambaram in its chess squad.
- Chess at the event runs August 11–15 with a $1.5 million purse, and current tour standings place Nihal seventh and Pranesh fifteenth among Indians vying for direct berths.
- Upcoming qualifiers include DreamHack Atlanta on May 15–17 and later Last Chance events that will decide the final places.
- EF Club Partner support, which can give up to $1 million per club from a $20 million program, is funding S8UL’s build-out and its fighting-games Talent Hunt that provides coaching, paid travel, and monthly stipends to six Indian players.