The Esports World Cup Left Riyadh for Paris, Paid Out Seventy-Five Million Dollars and Was Decided by a Trackmania Match
AG.AL won the 2026 Club Championship with 5,300 points and a seven million dollar prize. Team Falcons led going into the final weekend and lost it.
The Esports World Cup moved out of Saudi Arabia for its 2026 edition and ran for seven weeks in Paris, from 6 July to 23 August at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. The relocation followed regional instability, and it produced the largest edition the event has staged.
The prize pool was 75 million US dollars, up from 71.5 million in 2025. Thirty million of that sat in the Club Championship — the season-long points race across all titles — with 39 million spread across 25 individual events covering 24 games. Trackmania and a returning Fortnite were added; StarCraft II and Rennsport were dropped.
AG.AL won the Club Championship with 5,300 points and the seven million dollar first prize. Team Falcons finished second on 4,600 points for five million, ending a bid for a third consecutive title. Team Vitality took third with 3,300 points and four million, Natus Vincere fourth on 2,950 for three million, and Team Liquid fifth on 2,700 for two million.
The deciding result came in one of the newest events on the schedule. Falcons led on 4,600 points going into the final weekend. Gwendal "Gwen" Duparc then won the inaugural EWC Trackmania title and its 130,000 dollar first prize, and the points attached to it put AG.AL beyond reach. A club championship worth seven million dollars was settled by a time-trial racing game.
The scale figures are the other headline. Organisers reported 850 million total viewers, a 13 percent year-on-year increase, and 175,000 tickets sold — a 94 percent jump on 2025. More than 2,000 players from over 200 clubs across more than 100 countries competed. The League of Legends event peaked at 4.3 million concurrent viewers.
AG.AL chairman Le Kedeng framed the win in terms of the club's short history at the event: "This is our third year coming to EWC, I remember in 2024 we were just at the gate."
The Club Partner Program that underwrites much of this supported 40 organisations across five regions in 2026, with FaZe Clan excluded and NRG Esports returning.