Team Spirit have become the Esports World Cup 2026 CS2 champions, defeating FUT Esports 3:1 in the Grand Final. The Turkish team fought until the very last round, but Spirit proved stronger in the decisive moments.
For FUT, this Grand Final was historic. The team reached the Grand Final of a major international tournament for the first time, defeating magic, MOUZ, and FURIA on their way to the decisive match. In the semifinal, FUT defeated FURIA in a tense series and earned the chance to compete for the main EWC 2026 trophy.
The first map of the final was Cache, which was picked by FUT. The team made excellent use of the advantage of their own pick and closed out the map 13:10.
After the first map, FUT took the lead in the series, but Spirit immediately responded on Anubis. This time, the battle was extremely close: regulation ended in a tie, and Spirit managed to finish off their opponents in overtime — 16:13.
Thus, after two maps, the series score was 1:1.
Next came Ancient, which FUT also selected during the veto. And this was where the Turkish team came closest to taking the lead again.
FUT put up an incredibly competitive performance, but Spirit once again took the map to overtime. In the additional rounds, the Russian team proved stronger — 16:14.
Spirit took the lead 2:1, while FUT found themselves one map away from defeat.
On Nuke, Spirit no longer allowed their opponents to return to the series. The team controlled the game confidently and closed out the map 13:5, securing a 3:1 victory in the Grand Final.
This was particularly painful for FUT. Both lost maps — Anubis and Ancient — went all the way to overtime.
In other words, FUT were literally just a few rounds away from changing the course of the final. After winning Cache, the team had the advantage, but Spirit managed to survive the most difficult moments and take both incredibly close maps.
As a result, Spirit became the EWC 2026 CS2 champions, while FUT finished the tournament in second place. The winner will receive $600,000, while the finalist will earn $340,000 from the tournament's total $2 million prize pool.
Despite the defeat in the final, FUT's run at EWC 2026 became the biggest surprise of the tournament.
The team, which not everyone considered a title contender, made it all the way to the Grand Final and forced the entire world to take notice. It is especially pleasing that Ukrainians Dmytro “dem0n” Myroshnychenko and Nikita “cmtry” Samolotov played an important role in this fairy tale.
FUT were unable to lift the main trophy, but they leave Paris with a result the team can be proud of. Spirit take the gold, FUT take the silver, and EWC 2026 gets one of the most memorable finalists in its history.
As a reminder, The Mountain Attended the EWC 2026 CS2 Final: the “Game of Thrones” star turned out to be a Counter-Strike fan.