From August 19 to 22, 2026, Paris hosted a massive S-Tier offline tournament — the Reload Elite Series 2026 Championship. The competition took place at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles arena, with a total prize pool of $1,025,000 USD. The event was organized by Epic Games, Esports Foundation, and ESL FACEIT Group. A total of 40 teams participated in the tournament, with esports athletes from the United States having the largest representation (20% of the total number of players).
The champions of the tournament were the duo of vic0 and Malibuca, representing the BIG organization. For first place, they claimed the main prize of $260,000 USD and 1,000 Club Points. Additionally, vic0 earned the MVP title of the tournament, for which he was awarded an extra $25,000. Second place and $150,000 were won by the French duo Momsy and SkyJump, while third place with a prize of $90,000 went to the duo of shxrk and t3eny.
The victory of the BIG duo served as a prime example of the specific Match Point finals format. Under these rules, the title is claimed by the team that first reaches the 350-point mark and then secures a "Victory Royale" in the subsequent matches. vic0 and Malibuca successfully closed out the tournament in game 11 with a score of 499 points. Interestingly, the second and third-place teams accumulated even more total points — 516 and 513 respectively — but failed to fulfill the decisive win condition.
The path to the finals went through several stages, with games played on the Slurp Rush and Elite Stronghold maps:
As a reminder, Spirit — EWC 2026 Champions: FUT Fall Just Short of the Main Trophy
