Esports World Cup: Level Up is returning for its second season on June 26, dropping all 5 episodes on Prime Video.
Set in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the series follows a seven-week event focused on competing for a $70 million prize pool and the EWC Club Championship, highlighting personal journeys within the competition. It emphasizes the significance of a single match in a player’s career and the potential for a moment to elevate a player to stardom.
Esports World Cup: Level Up, produced by This Machine and directed by R.J. Cutler, returns for its second season with showrunner John Dorsey and executive producers Jane Cha Cutler, Trevor Smith, Elise Pearlstein, and Mark Blatty. The series adopts a vérité-style approach, highlighting the sacrifices, stakes, and growing fame of top competitive gamers.
Featured players include Jake “Boaster” Howlett (Fnatic; VALORANT), Vivi “Vivian” Indrawaty (Team Vitality; MLBB), Kasimili “Soka” Tongamoa (Team Falcons; Call of Duty: Warzone), Xiao Hai (KuaiShou Gaming; Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves) and Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren (Mongolz; Counter-Strike). To bring the players’ personal stories to the forefront, the film’s crew was on set in Riyadh for seven weeks and also traveled to locations across the U.K., U.S. and Indonesia for rare at-home visits.
Standout storylines woven throughout the series include:
- Magnus Carlsen (Team Liquid, Chess) – Widely considered the greatest chess player ever, Carlsen faces the isolation of dominance, with no traditional peaks left to conquer. His story follows his shift into esports, where a new generation of challengers awaits.
- Boaster (Fnatic, Valorant) – As Valorant debuts at the event, the British competitor’s journey from aspiring actor to title contender shows there’s no single path to success, shaped by resilience through personal and professional setbacks.
- Xiao Hai (KSG, Street Fighter) – A reigning champion shaped by strict discipline, Xiao Hai was competing against adults by age six. Now a father, he balances global competition with family life.
- Vivian (Team Vitality, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang) – Competing for a life-changing prize, Vivian’s story centers on overcoming recent setbacks and confronting childhood trauma.
- The Mongolz & bLitz (Counter-Strike 2) – Led by their star player bLitz, this grassroots Mongolian team has risen from obscurity to national prominence, becoming symbols of pride and perseverance.
- Soka (Team Falcons, Call of Duty: Warzone) – The reigning champion faces pressure on multiple fronts, dealing with rivalries from former teammates while navigating a turbulent home life.
- Coach ArSy (Team Liquid, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang) – Offering a rare coaching perspective, ArSy draws on a difficult upbringing to lead and inspire his team’s pursuit of redemption.
“Level Up captures the human side of what we are building with the Esports World Cup. EWC creates the stage: the best games, the best Clubs, the best players, life-changing stakes and moments that bring together a global gaming community of billions. The documentary takes you closer to the people inside those moments: their pressure, their ambition, their families and the stories that make esports meaningful to a new generation.”
Ralf Reichert, CEO, Esports Foundation
“This next chapter deepens our exploration of a global phenomenon that is as much about human ambition and identity as it is about competition. Esports is one of the most dynamic cultural movements of our time. In season two, we continue to chronicle not just the competition, but the lives, dreams, and sacrifices of the players at the center of it, revealing a world that is both intensely personal and globally resonant.”
R.J. Cutler, Director
Level Up captures the cultural fusion of the Esports World Cup, highlighting elite competition alongside performances from artists and athletes. Notable moments include Post Malone’s gaming display, Magnus Carlsen’s chess esports victory, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s dramatic presentation of the Club Championship trophy.
The magnitude of the Esports World Cup is also seen through the reactions of some of the world’s biggest sports and entertainment figures, including reigning F1 champion Lando Norris; Brazilian football legends Ronaldo Nazario and Kaká, who go one-on-one in an EA FC showmatch; professional footballer Alisha Lehmann; skateboarder Tony Hawk; and tennis star Nick Kyrgios, who stated: “The crowd, the atmosphere, is literally better than Wimbledon or any Grand Slam.”
The Esports World Cup 2025 was a pivotal event in competitive gaming, attracting 750 million viewers and generating 350 million hours of watch time. The tournament achieved a peak concurrent viewership of nearly 8 million during a League of Legends match. Coverage was extensive, spanning 28 platforms with 97 broadcast partners in 35 languages. The event featured 25 tournaments across 24 games, involving over 2,000 players from around 200 clubs globally.
The 2026 edition of the Esports World Cup will be held in Paris, France from July 6 through August 23, as the top Clubs in the world compete for $75 million and the 2026 EWC Club Championship trophy.