Esports World Cup 2025 in Riyadh in Jeopardy as Hackers Prepare DDoS Campaigns

After analyzing the cybersecurity landscape surrounding the Esports World Cup 2025 in Riyadh, StormWall believes that the event is at risk due to possible DDoS attacks. Cyber attacks targeting the Esports World Cup 2025 and the surrounding infrastructure in Riyadh have already increased a lot since the tournament began on July 7. It is now possible that the $70 million competition will be disrupted, StormWal warns.

StormWall’s security operations center has blocked about 60,000 attacks on the entertainment sector in MENA at large in the first week since the tournament began. The attacks have hit payment processors, Riyadh hotels hosting the 2,000 competing players, and betting platforms.

The attacks are very sophisticated. Probing in particular has increased by 8,000%, according to StormWall experts. This is when systems are briefly scanned to identify weak points.

“It’s possible that the first wave is only 10–15% of the planned volume because the attackers have that kind of firepower.” Ramil Khantimirov, the founder of StormWall, says.

DDoS intensity may increase 10-fold as the tournament approaches playoff stages in August. In the worst case, this can ruin the tournament. Esports players can react to events in 100 to 250 milliseconds. However, due to DDoS, latency can increase to multiple seconds. This would make the competition pointless. StormWall is not associated with the Esports World Cup 2025.

Hackers may directly target the game servers of League of Legends, Dota 2, and Valorant, and may attempt to crash live matches during peak viewing hours. The broadcasting infrastructure can also be attacked, which could black out the tournament feed for millions of viewers worldwide.

“It looks like hackers want to disrupt the whole tournament,” says Ramil Khantimirov. “Everything indicates a major coordinated attack in the next two to three weeks. If you’re involved with the Esports World Cup — put emergency DDoS protocols in place right away.”