Today, we’re excited to announce the start of a new page in history for War Thunder Esports with the arrival of a professional league! April 2025 marks the start of the War Thunder Championships Series (WTCS), a league comprising four major events throughout 2025.

In this news, we’ll be explaining how this league will work, how you can take part, and the schedule of events!

Welcome to a new competitive era. #WTCS!

Plans For This Year

Major Events Explained

All major events have a duration of 8 days, split into 3 stages, including 4 days of Open Qualifiers, 3 days of Play Offs and 1 day of for the Final. All tournaments will be in a double-elimination format.

Open Qualifier

Each major event will be preceded by 2 weekends of Open Qualifiers (four days), allowing anyone to create a team and qualify for the rest of the competition.

The top four teams in each Open Qualifier will book their place in the Play Off phases of the major event.

As soon as a team passes the Open Qualifier phases, it will automatically score points for them.

Major I: Titan 5v5 [Bo5]

The first major of the year takes place in a 5v5 mixed format. We want to challenge the versatility of players in this competition, as they’ll be made to play tanks and planes in the same battle.

Major II: Armored Apex 4v4 [Bo5]

The second major takes place in a 4v4 format with top tier tanks on a wide variety of maps. This major is made for armor lovers who combine strategy and patience.

Major III: Air Superiority 4v4 [Bo7]

The best pilots are invited to compete in a 4v4 jet format for this third major of the year, featuring unusual maps and the latest generation aircraft.

During these 3 majors, the line-ups will showcase the latest vehicles added to the game.

Grand Final: Thunder Cup

Thunder Cup is considered to be War Thunder’s most legendary tournament. It brings together all the major formats in a single competition. In other words, during the 3 weekends of Thunder Cup, you’ll have the chance to play in tanks, planes and mixed to find the best team of this first season of the WTCS.

How do I take part in the WTCS?

To participate in this league, you’ll need to build a roster of 8 players.

One week before the start of the Open Qualifier, there will be an announcement allowing you to create your team on our tournament platform TSS

If your team manages to qualify during the Open Qualifier, the announced roster must be the same for the play-off phases. No player changes will be possible.

As soon as a team starts to score points for the whole season, its roster will be locked. However, the team will have the option to change 2 players between each major event, and must inform the organization accordingly.

The 8 finalist teams who accumulate the most Thunder points during the season will qualify for the Thunder Cup Grand Final, in November 2025. The 8 finalist teams will be made up of a roster of 9 players.

To be eligible for the final roster, each player must have participated in at least one major event during the season, regardless of ranking.

At the end of the “Air Superiority” major event in September, the final qualifying teams will be asked to provide a full list of 9 players for the Thunder CUP Grand Final.

How do I score Thunder Points?

The main way to earn points is directly linked to the overall ranking of each major. In fact, the higher a team is ranked in a major, the more points they will earn. As an indication, here is the number of points related to placements:

If two or more teams finish with the same total Thunder Points after all tournaments, the following tie-breaking criteria will be applied in order:

• Results of head-to-head matches between tied teams in all tournaments.
• Number of dominant wins (3-0 matches).

The same point system will be applied in the Thunder Cup Grand Final.

Winning is important, but how you win now matters even more. The new system introduces additional points based on match results to reward dominant victories and penalize heavy losses.

• A 3-0 sweep will now grant +3 extra points, while a 0-3 defeat will deduct 3 points.
• Close wins (3-2) provide +1 point, while narrow losses (2-3) result in a -1 point.

This system ensures that teams pushing for decisive victories will gain an edge, making every round count.

Rewards and Cash Prizes

Prizes for each event will be announced in advance for each Major. Prizes include a total of over 400,000 Golden Eagles distributed at each major event, exclusive Esports skins of the WTCS series, some unique and rare titles and vehicle coupons linked to each major event. Thanks to our sponsors, you’ll also have the opportunity to win unique War Thunder branded material prizes during the year!

If your country of residence is not included in this list, you will need to provide a postal address in any of these countries in order to receive your prize.

This year, a total of €15,000 will be up for grabs in the Thunder Cup Grand Final. Plus, the chance for teams to create their own skin, title and decal which will be integrated into the game forever!

Sponsors

Thrustmaster and Hercules are the official sponsors of the WTCS and will be supporting us throughout the year in this new adventure.

Thrustmaster: Elevating Your Game

Passion, quality, and innovation, these are the core values that drive Thrustmaster. Dedicated to pushing the limits of realism and immersion, they create thrilling and truly exceptional gaming experiences. Whether you’re a dedicated competitor or a casual player, Thrustmaster accessories for PC and consoles bring your gaming dreams to life. We are excited to welcome Thrustmaster into War Thunder’s competitive scene throughout this new era as an official sponsor of the WTCS!

Stream by Hercules: Start streaming

Hercules has a legacy of breaking boundaries in interactive audio entertainment. With their new range, “Stream” by Hercules, they introduced two audio controllers that let you easily manage all your audio in a flash, right at your fingertips. Whether you’re a gamer who doesn’t want to Alt+Tab out of your game or a streamer looking for effortless audio control, these products are perfect for you. We are excited to welcome “Stream” by Hercules into War Thunder’s competitive scene throughout this new era as an official sponsor of the WTCS!

Watch the entire league live on Twitch!

You can watch the entire competition live on Twitch! The League will be broadcast on our multilingual channels in English, French, German, Russian and Polish. Our casters are waiting for you to participate and register for the WTCS and to comment on matches and cheer for your favorite teams!

Better yet, streams will be accompanied by various Twitch Drops and giveaways! So make sure to not miss a thing! At the end of each event, we’ll publish all of the Play-off and Final matches on our new YouTube channel.

FOLLOW Twitch

FOLLOW YOUTUBE

Community Tournaments for you!

In addition to the league, this year we’ve decided to create a series of community tournaments, which will be held throughout the year between major events.

These will be secondary regional events. With unique prizes, line-ups and formats decided by the community, for the community!

They will generally take place over 2 to 3 days and will be rebroadcast on our Twitch Esports channels. We also invite content creators to access and rebroadcast the matches. Don’t hesitate to contact us via the ticket system on the Official Esports discord and join the project!

There will be an event for the Chinese, French, German, Polish and Portuguese communities!

Follow us on our social networks!

To make sure you don’t miss any information regarding War Thunder Esports, keep up to date by following us on our social media channels, including Instagram, X and Telegram!

Over there, we’ll be posting League news on a regular basis and updating our season Ranking!