After five days of intense competition in Paris, we have an Esports World Cup Champion: Virtus.Pro! Here’s our recap of how the veteran squad of Lukarux, NIXZYEE, Beami and curexi claimed the title.

Group Stage

Seeded in Group A, Virtus.Pro started out with a decent Day 1, netting 35 points over their first six games. In Day 2, they really found their footing and had the highest score of the day - 50 points, beating out everyone else in the lobby. Despite the strong performance however, everyone’s attention was on MiTH in the group stage - as they had come out of the gates swinging on Day 1 with an astonishing 79 point lead, which they cemented into a dominant first place finish overall in the Group Stage. With the Finals looming, nobody had their eye on the bear in the room…

Grand Finals

Virtus.Pro made a strong impact on the first day of the Grand Finals, securing Chicken Dinners on Games 4 & 6. What lay behind these two match wins was deeper - a willingness to seize every opportunity that was given to them, and to take every inch of space that other teams had left open. The team’s impeccable game sense and knowing exactly when to strike without being overconfident put them solidly in the lead at the end of the first day of Grand Finals, with a 28 point gap between them and Team Falcons, who trailed them in second place. 

If MiTH’s 79 points on the first day of the Group Stage was astonishing, then Virtus.Pro’s performance in that first day of the Grand Finals (gaining 91 points in a harder lobby) was truly legendary, and cemented them as the team to beat going into the final two days of the Grand Finals. Virtus.Pro kept their foot on the pedal; even though they only secured one more Chicken Dinner in those following last two days, their performance remained consistently deadly even on the games they didn’t win - racking up enough points that still no other team came close to reaching their points totals. 

As the last game of the tournament kicked off, the Cup was all but sealed for Virtus.Pro, as any other team would have needed a career-defining performance in order to overtake them in the standings - and nobody else had yet passed the Smash Rule threshold to put the rest of the lobby in check. Thus, as the curtains closed on Game 18 of the Grand Finals, Virtus.Pro were crowned as EWC 2026 Champions with a final total of 159 Points.

As the second half of the year kicks off with PEC, PAS, PGS and finally PGC - we’re excited to see if VP can take their legacy to new heights. It’s PGC or bust!