Both Vitality and Falcons falter as Spirit and Legacy prosper - EWC 2026

Nobody wants to win EWC, it seems.

Falcons were the overwhelming favourite coming into the event, off the back of the Major win and the org generally putting a lot of stock into EWC, but they were given a paddling by Legacy who look to be in white-hot form going into the semi-finals.

m0NESY was a one-man team on Mirage, as Falcons settled early after losing the pistol and appeared to wrestle back control of the game, but a horrible streak of rounds - not helped by NiKo turning pacifist for half the game - saw Falcons looking down the barrel on their T side.

m0NESY was deployed at B twice early on to shut down arT's telegraphed B rushes, but Legacy did just enough to eke out five rounds with some more structured A hits, and then went flawless on the CT side with latto shutting down Falcons at every turn. m0NESY had 18 kills at the half as Falcons led 7-5, and he also topfragged the T side.

With four.

try returned the favour on Dust 2, dropping a 2 K/D with an electric defence. The enigmatic sniper found 17 frags as Legacy earnt seven CT rounds, with latto leading the charge this time on the attack. NiKo found his mojo a little bit again, but m0NESY was really the only bright spark and even he was missing uncharacteristically at times.

A bad day at the office all round - but Legacy are putting together one of those runs again. Beware.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you get donked.

Vitality got donked today.

This game baffled us; we were so sure that Spirit were cooked, and we sort of still are, but Vitality look below where we expected them to be even with the caveats of the looming absences for parenthood and the hangover of the era 'ending', so to speak. We thought this would be a simple win for them.

apEX had a horrible day all around, really. A six round T side on Anubis isn't great, albeit not horrendous, three rounds on Mirage is pretty terrible, and as a fragger he was way below par. Not to rag on him; IGLing is hard enougn as is, but this was not a day he'll look back on fondly.

tN1R found 19 kills on the T side, sort of quietly, if that makes any sense, to close out the game after donk had put in some serious work on the CT side to drag Spirit to even at the half on Anubis, but mezii's two clutches kept things close in what otherwise would have been something of a blowout. Spirit won it in round 24, but could have won it much cleaner were it not for some poor late round decision making.

Once more the clutches were key for Vitality, with everyone winning one on Nuke in a game that went into OT, which says a lot. Spirit were the better team throughout, but individually screwed up the big moments in the late round. This was proven on Mirage, as Spirit finally stopped messing up the late rounds and pounded Vitality 13-3. donk absolutely slaughtered them.

Vitality still managed to win a clutch.

Worrying times for Vitality.

In one final upset victory, FUT dominated MOUZ on Ancient to complete a convincing 2-0.

FUT look extremely scary and are not entirely without a shot at winning the event, providing they play like this again.

Dust 2 saw xelex and xfl0ud going blow for blow, and were inseperable at the end of regulation. FUT needed OT, which very nearly saw one of the rounds of the year from dem0n before he was stopped in full flow, but eventually came out on top in round 30. Unusually, this was a tale of strong CT sides on the map, with both teams posting seven.

Ancient was much more one-sided, with FUT grabbing ten T side rounds at the half and leaving MOUZ with an unassailable mountain to climb. xfl0ud again was excellent, combining with Krabeni for 20 kills at the half to sink MOUZ' hopes and dreams of an EWC trophy.

Some interesting semi-finals await.