“It’s time to show what these amazingly hairy legs are capable of”—letters to the participants of the 2026 Esports World Cup

The organizers of the 2026 Esports World Cup have prepared a personalized welcome letter for each team participating in the Dota 2 tournament. In the letters, the organizers reference each team’s history—their successes, quirky moments, or roster—and poke fun at the players.

For example, in the letter to 1w Team, the organizers recalled their success at ESL One Birmingham 2026 and joked about the watches the team received as a bonus from the organization when they signed their contract. As for Team Falcons, after listing the team’s trophies, they noted that the EWC title remains out of reach for the roster.

In a message to L1GA TEAM, the organizers recalled their high-profile victory over Team Bald in the qualifiers for The International 2026 and concluded that the team isn’t afraid of the pressure from the stands after that match. Level UP was congratulated on its debut at the Esports World Cup, and Alexander “queezy” Lipin was jokingly named one of the strongest players in the fourth position.

A special section of the letter to OG was dedicated to the story of Mark “Raven” Fausto, who knocked the organization out of TI 2016 as part of TNC and now plays for the club itself—as well as a plea to OG co-founder Sebastian “Ceb” Debs to keep him out of the games. In the letter to PARIVISION, the organizers also highlighted the contributions of the team’s coach, Clement “Puppey” Ivanov, who has previously led teams to victories at major tournaments.

In a message to REKONIX, the organizers compared the Parisian heat to the climate typical of Jakarta, noting that acclimatization could give the Indonesian team an advantage. Rune Eaters received an informal letter featuring a photomontage of one of the players and a brief message of encouragement: “Do it for the capybaras.”

In a letter to Team Liquid, they recalled Michał “Nisha” Jankowski’s victory at the MDL Disneyland Paris Major 2019 with a different roster and from a different era of Dota 2, adding a dig at William “Blitz” Lee. As for Team Spirit, the defending tournament champions, they were greeted personally, with the letter noting the return of Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov to the roster and the debut of Alexey “not me” Kosmyinin: “...it’s time to show what these surprisingly hairy legs are capable of in front of the crowd here in Paris.”

For Team Yandex, the organizers cited statistics from recent years: teams that won the tournament leading up to the EWC have consistently underperformed at the championship itself; they asked the team to break this “curse.” Finally, in a letter to Xtreme Gaming, published in Chinese, they recalled the victory of Wang “Ame” Chunyu and Zhuang “NothingToSay” Jinxian at the same tournament in 2022 and expressed hope that they would repeat that success.

Earlier, Team Falcons support player Andreas “Cr1t-” Frank Nielsen showed off the practice rooms at the 2026 Dota 2 Esports World Cup: “The open-air practice rooms—it’s like playing at The Frankfurt Major 2015 all over again.”

Photo: Esports Foundation.