Esports World Cup 2026: Group A Standings and Tournament Highlights

Chess.com's Group Stage Group A standings page now serves as the live reference point after the Esports World Cup 2026 wrapped its seven-week run in Paris, with the third edition of the tournament posting a record $75 million prize pool across 25 events and 24 games. Per Gaming Amigos' recap, more than 2,000 players from over 200 clubs and 100-plus countries competed — and the Paris staging marked the first EWC held outside Riyadh.

The Opening Salvos

The bracket opened with Natus Vincere's Luis Guadalupe "DarkAngel" Castillo Gomez taking the FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves title in a 5-1 rout of Japan's Kenta "mi2ha4" Ichihara. DarkAngel raced to a 3-0 lead in the bo9 final before Mi2ha4 stole one set back, and the closeout came in two straight. The run banks $250,000 from the $1 million prize pool and locks DarkAngel — the lone returning top-eight player from the 2025 event — into the SNK World Championship 2026 finals.

100 Thieves ended a six-year wait for an S-Tier international title, downing NRG 3-1 in the grand final for $600,000. NRG forced a fourth map on Ascent after cruising through Haven, building a 9-3 lead before 100 Thieves ripped off a 7-1 second-half run to tie things up. The series traded rounds into overtime before 100 Thieves closed 14-12, with Cryocells posting a 1.22 series rating to claim MVP honors and an extra $25,000.

Lower-Bracket Climbs

Not every champion arrived through the upper path. Japanese trio UNLIMIT — Xtsuvi, Yulariman, and Peace — scraped into the ALGS Split 1 Playoffs Finals on a 14th-place group finish, good enough to skip the Survivor Stage outright. Under the match-point format, where the first squad to 50 points takes the title, UNLIMIT built momentum across the bracket and crossed the threshold in Game 10 to bank $600,000.

PARIVISION answered BetBoom Team's opening-map win with three straight, sealing the series 3-1 in just under 37 minutes on the closing map and taking $750,000. Carry Alan "Satanic" Gallyamov walked away with match MVP after a 9.4/1.9/8.5 average K/D/A across the run. DPlus KIA swept Karmine Corp 3-0 for their first international title since 2020, and Team Vitality Ladies lifted the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Women's (MWI) crown.

What the Group A Table Decides

With the group stage closed, the standings on Chess.com now dictate tiebreakers, locked seeds, and upper-bracket positioning heading into the playoff rounds. For clubs still alive in the $30 million Club Championship race, every position on the Group A board reshapes the path through the rest of the cycle — and the next qualifier slate will determine who carries Paris momentum forward into the bracket.