Team Spirit are the CS2 Esports World Cup 2026 champions.
Spirit beat FUT Esports 3 to 1 in today’s best of five Grand Final in Paris, recovering from an opening loss on Cache before winning Anubis, Ancient and Nuke to close out EWC 26.
It ends one of the stranger tournament runs of the year. Spirit actually lost their opening match to JiJieHao before winning six straight series and eventually lifting the trophy.
If you followed the event from the beginning, our Counter Strike 2 at EWC 26 guide covers how the tournament started, the original field and the road into the playoffs.
Spirit Beat FUT 3 to 1 in the EWC 2026 Final
FUT did not look like a team playing its first Big Event final when the series started.
They picked Cache and immediately made it work, beating Spirit 13 to 10. xfl0ud was especially good on the opening map, finishing with 25 kills as FUT took the early series lead.
Then Spirit started taking over.
Anubis went all the way to overtime after FUT fought back from an 11 to 5 deficit, but Spirit eventually escaped with a 16 to 13 win.
Ancient was even closer. FUT reached map point at 12 to 9, but Spirit forced another overtime and stole the map 16 to 14. That felt like the turning point.
Nuke was completely different.
Spirit went up 10 to 2 at halftime and finished the final map 13 to 5, ending the series 3 to 1 and becoming EWC champions.
Cache being played in a Grand Final was also pretty cool to see. Anyone getting back into the map can use our CS2 Cache callouts guide, while the final map makes our CS2 Nuke callouts guide worth checking too.
donk Wins the EWC 2026 MVP
Of course, donk ended up with the MVP.
Danil “donk” Kryshkovets finished the tournament with a 1.50 rating across 17 maps, earning his second MVP award of 2026. He also went 88 to 70 in the Grand Final itself.
That performance matters even more because Spirit had not exactly cruised through the event. They had to eliminate Vitality in the quarterfinals, ending a six match losing streak against them, before beating Legacy and eventually FUT.
Spirit’s other big trophy this year also came with donk dominating. They won PGL Astana 2026 earlier in the season, where donk also took MVP.
If you want his current setup, we have the updated donk CS2 settings for 2026. He is also already near the top of our best CS2 players of 2026 ranking, and another trophy plus another MVP only strengthens that case.
FUT’s Run Was Still Insane
FUT losing the final should not erase what they just did.
They entered the Grand Final undefeated in Paris and knocked out MOUZ before beating FURIA in a close semifinal to reach the first Big Event final in the organization’s history.
The community reaction reflected that too. Even before the final, the big CS2 discussion threads were full of people talking about how much value FUT had gotten from this roster and how unexpected the run had become. After the final, much of the reaction was still praise for FUT alongside a sudden change in tone around Spirit coach hally.
FUT did not win EWC, but they are definitely not flying under the radar anymore.
Legacy Beat FURIA for Third Place
The other match on the final day was an all Brazilian third place series between Legacy and FURIA.
Legacy won 2 to 1, losing Ancient 13 to 9 before coming back with 13 to 9 wins on both Nuke and Dust2.
That gave Legacy third place and $190,000, while FURIA finished fourth with $110,000. FUT earned $340,000 for second and Spirit took home $600,000 from the tournament’s $2 million prize pool.
What Spirit Winning EWC 2026 Means
Spirit now have two major trophies in 2026 and another huge donk MVP performance.
More importantly, they finally beat Vitality again, survived two overtime maps against FUT in the final and finished the tournament looking much stronger than they did at the beginning.
For players trying to copy the kind of competitive setup used at this level, our best CS2 settings for 2026 and CS2 crosshair guide cover the basics.
And there is basically no break.
The next big stop is BLAST Open Porto 2026, which starts August 26, just three days after the EWC final. You can also bookmark our next CS2 tournament guide and 2026 CS2 Major schedule if you want to keep up with the rest of the season.
For now though, Spirit are the EWC 2026 CS2 champions, and donk has another MVP.
