Chinese organisation AG.AL broke Team Falcons’ two-year stranglehold on the Esports World Cup Club Championship, winning the 2026 edition in Paris with 5,300 points. Two-time defending champions Saudi Arabia’s Team Falcons finished second with 4,600 points, followed by Team Vitality with 3,300 points, Natus Vincere with 2,950 points, and Team Liquid with 2,700 points.

AG.AL secured the $7 million Club Championship title with a cross-game campaign that included a first-place finish in TEKKEN 8, second-place finishes in Chess, Free Fire and the Honor of Kings World Cup, and a third-place finish in Teamfight Tactics. The title was decided on the final weekend, when AG.AL’s Gwendal “Gwen” Duparc won the EWC’s inaugural Trackmania tournament.

Team Falcons entered the Trackmania playoffs leading the overall standings, but Carl-Antoni “Carl Jr.” Cloutier’s quarterfinal exit opened the door for AG.AL. Needing to finish third or better, Duparc dominated the final to claim the $130,000 tournament prize and secure the Club Championship for his organisation.

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Indian performance at EWC 2026

Indian teams made their biggest-ever appearance at EWC 2026 in Paris, but the campaign delivered mixed results. In Free Fire, three Indian teams, Team Apex Gaming, S8UL Esports, and Total Gaming Esports, qualified for the first time in India’s history. Team Apex reached the Grand Finals but finished 12th, while S8UL ended 11th.

PUBG Mobile saw India make history with GodLike Esports and Orangutan becoming the first Indian teams to qualify for the Grand Finals. However, both teams failed to impress in the finals, as GodLike finished 13th and Orangutan ended up on 15th place.

In chess, Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin reached the quarterfinals. Arjun lost to Hikaru Nakamura in Armageddon, while Nihal fell to Magnus Carlsen. Both earned $75,000 for their top-eight finishes.

New records

The $75 million prize pool event featured more than 2,000 players representing 200 Clubs and over 100 countries across 25 tournaments in 24 games.

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The Paris edition set new records across the board, reaching 850 million viewers and generating 440 million hours watched, with peak viewership of 4.3 million during the League of Legends tournament. The event sold 175,000 tickets, up 94% compared to 2025.

Other highlights included 15-year-old Chilean Jaime “Craime” Bustos becoming the youngest EWC champion in history with his Street Fighter 6 victory, and grandmaster Magnus Carlsen repeating as Chess champion without losing a single game. The Esports World Cup will return to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2027.