The FUT squad fell to Spirit 1-3 in the grand final of the Esports World Cup 2026 held in Paris. After taking the first map of the series, the team dropped three in a row, two of which ended in overtime. In a post-match interview, FUT's Hungarian coach András "coolio" Fercsák shared the reasons for the defeat and spoke about the experience gained.
The turning point of the matchup was Ancient. According to the coach, the team let a 12-9 lead slip and lost in overtime, which was a heavy psychological blow. This directly affected the final map, Nuke, where FUT suffered a crushing 5-13 defeat. The coach noted that the team had good reads on the map and the right setups, but the players ran out of physical energy, failed to reset emotionally, and lost crucial duels.
coolio considers the difference in experience as the main reason for losing the close games on Anubis and Ancient. Spirit proved to be calmer in important clutch situations and had better communication. "You always feel that you should win this round and think, 'Oh, unlucky'. But no, it's all about communication and how you play out situations," the coach emphasized, adding that for his team, this was their first time playing on a stage of this magnitude.
Despite the loss, the coach is incredibly proud of their second-place finish, which exceeded the team's expectations before the start of the tournament. He noted that for a young roster that made a change and added xfl0ud just two months ago, this event provided a tremendous amount of playing practice and taught them how to play in front of a live crowd.
In just a few days, FUT will begin their run at the BLAST Open Porto tournament, where they will face the Brazilians from Legacy—another EWC 2026 medalist—in the opening round. coolio is approaching this event with realistic expectations and without setting the bar too high, stressing that the main task for the players right now is to find the energy to rest and quickly reset mentally.
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