NUGA 2026 Is Coming to Calabar and Esports Is on the Card 

NUGA 2026 is shaping up to be one of the biggest editions yet. Every two years, Nigeria’s university campuses turn into something close to a national festival. We see athletes from over 100 universities, tens of thousands of spectators, a torch, a mascot and a host city rolling out its best. That’s NUGA, the Nigerian University Games and this November it’s Calabar’s turn to host. The 28th edition runs November 14–24, 2026, in Cross River State, under the theme “Paradise Games”. It’s a name that fits, Calabar is leaning hard into its natural beauty and biodiversity as part of the Games’ identity, right down to the mascot.

Meet OMON

NUGA and the University of Calabar recently unveiled OMON the Gorilla as the official face of the Games. OMON is a Cross River Gorilla, one of the rarest primates on Earth, found almost nowhere else but this corner of Nigeria. The mascot is doing double duty: representing the strength and resilience NUGA wants associated with student-athletes, while quietly pushing a conservation message for a species that genuinely needs the attention. Expect to see OMON everywhere like in campaigns, volunteer drives and community events leading up  to November.

By the numbers: 1 host campus, 10 days of competition, 120 universities, 28 sports, 50,000+ athletes and officials, 1,000+ volunteers, 50,000+ spectators on-site and 50 million+ in projected audience reach.

The Nuga 2026 Esport Lineup 

Buried in the 28-sport lineup, sitting quietly alongside athletics, boxing, judo, and chess, is something that wouldn’t have been there a decade ago: Esport. Four official events, open category:

Title	Format
EA FC 1v1	Head-to-head football simulation, group or knockout brackets
eFootball 1v1	Head-to-head football simulation matches
Fighting Title 1v1	Best-of-sets, one-on-one fighting game matches
Mobile Team Title	Squad-based mobile title, team brackets

Schedules are still marked TBD, but the inclusion itself is the headline. This is a Federal-level, CVC-backed, decades-old sporting institution officially recognizing competitive gaming as a discipline worth a podium, in the same breath as track and field and boxing.

Two football sims, a fighting game slot, and a mobile team bracket is also a smart spread. It tracks with what the 2025 Nigerian Esports Data Report found across Nigeria’s competitive scene: EAFC alone drew over 1,000 players across 31 events and pulled in a prize pool north of ₦16.6 million, while mobile titles like Free Fire (35 events, 6,200+ players) and Call of Duty Mobile (the single biggest prize pool tracked, at ₦30.3 million) dominate by sheer participation. NUGA’s lineup consisting of two football sims and a mobile team title is mirroring exactly where the numbers say Nigeria’s student gamers already are.

Calabar, November 14–24

If you’re tracking Nigerian esports, as a player, a fan, or someone building in this space, NUGA UNICAL 2026 is a date for the calendar. It’s early days for the esports brackets (no fixtures yet), but the fact that they exist at all, inside a Games this size, with this kind of institutional weight behind it, says something about where competitive gaming sits in the country right now.

We’ll be watching Calabar closely between November 14–24. For full categories and registration details, head to paradisegames.ng/games.