NAVI finish fourth at EWC 2026 despite qualifying in just seven titles

Wasif Ahmed Published August 24, 2026

Since the inaugural Esports World Cup (EWC) in 2024, one team has had the edge when it came to the Club Championship, which holds the most significant part of the tournament’s giant prize pools—and that was Team Falcons.

However, after winning the first two editions, we now have a new winner, finally, in AG.AL. The Chinese esports organization qualified for 18 of the 25 tournaments at the EWC (it had rosters in 20). Team Falcons, on the other hand, had rosters for all 25 tournaments and managed to qualify in 22.

However, after a string of surprising performances which also upset expectations from an esports betting perspective in some tournaments, AG.AL finished with 5300 points, 700 ahead of Team Falcons.

Team Falcons suffered early eliminations in MLBB’s Women Invitational, Dota 2, and CS2, which allowed AG.AL to snatch the crown from the Saudi Esports organization.

However, despite the storylines at the top of the table, NAVI, which finished fourth, is an esports organization to be spoken about. They achieved fourth feat despite qualifying in only seven tournaments.

NAVI had competed in 13 for this year’s EWC, but qualified for almost half of them. With just seven games under its belt, many would have written them off for a top-five finish.

NAVI prove a few strong titles can be enough at EWC

A win in Fatal Fury, an extremely surprising second place in MLBB’s Women Invitational (MWI) 2026 and second in PUBG, along with top eight finishes across Chess, Crossfire, and new EWC entrant TrackMania, allowed NAVI to accumulate 2950 points and secure fourth place.

As a result, they will walk away with $3 million of the $30 million Club Championship 2026 prize pool.

AG.AL will get $7 million, Falcons will pocket $5 million, while Team Vitality will receive $4 million.

Nonetheless, this EWC, which was shifted to Paris amidst the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, has set a case study for esports organizations. They don’t need to compete in as many games as possible to have a shot at the Club Championship.

A few core games are enough to do it.

Featured image credit: Esports Foundation