Team Spirit Wins CS2 Esports World Cup 2026 After Beating FUT 3-1

FUT Strike First on Cache

FUT opened the best-of-five with a gamble on Cache, playing the map for the first time at the event after the teams’ shared Inferno permaban allowed them to remove Dust2 instead. The decision immediately suited FUT’s aggressive approach as they raced into a 3-0 lead.

Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov broke the run with a clutch before Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia helped Spirit move 6-3 ahead, but Aulon “Krabeni” Fazlija answered with a 1v2 that helped FUT reach the break level. FUT then won another pistol round and took control defensively, with Yasin “xfl0ud” Koç producing 140 ADR as his team surged to a 12-6 advantage.

Spirit threatened a late comeback, but FUT closed Cache 13-10. xfl0ud finished the map with a 1.62 rating, giving the underdogs the opening map of the series and their strongest individual performance of the final.

Spirit Survive FUT’s Anubis Comeback

A third pistol-round victory carried FUT into a 4-1 start on Anubis, only for Spirit’s defence to reverse the map. sh1ro, Danil “donk” Kryshkovets and Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich drove a run that stretched across the half, with FUT managing just one round from the next ten as Spirit built an 11-5 advantage.

Closing the map proved far harder. FUT recovered from 11-5 to 12-8 and eventually forced overtime at 12-12, wiping away what had looked like a comfortable Spirit lead. tN1R then took over in overtime, recording eight kills across three rounds as Spirit regained map point at 15-12 before finishing Anubis 16-13.

Ancient Turns the Grand Final in Spirit’s Favour

Ancient produced another tight contest. FUT again established an early advantage, but a triple kill from donk on a partial buy helped Spirit recover to a 6-6 score at the break.

Dmytro “dem0n” Myroshnychenko and Džiugas “dziugss” Steponavičius then found the multi-kills FUT needed to move 12-9 ahead in the second half. Spirit refused to concede the map, with Boris “magixx” Vorobiev and tN1R producing their own multi-kills to erase the deficit and force another overtime.

FUT came within a single bullet of ending it before overtime when dem0n nearly completed a 1v3 clutch. Spirit survived and converted the second chance, winning Ancient 16-14 to move one map from the trophy. The defeat also extended FUT’s losing streak on Ancient to nine maps.

Spirit Run Away With Nuke to Seal the Trophy

The accumulated close rounds finally gave way to a one-sided map on Nuke. Spirit’s attack overwhelmed FUT from the opening stages, with tN1R producing the early damage before zont1x added several high-impact multi-kills.

Spirit reached halftime with a 10-2 lead, leaving FUT little room for another comeback. donk finished the deciding map with 21 kills and 10 deaths as Spirit closed Nuke 13-5 and the series 3-1.

The final map was also donk’s best-rated performance of the grand final at 1.87. Spirit’s victory delivered the organisation its first CS2 Esports World Cup championship, succeeding The MongolZ as the tournament winner.

donk Takes MVP After Dominant EWC Run

donk’s performance extended far beyond the grand final. He finished the Esports World Cup with a 1.50 tournament rating, a 1.32 kills-per-round-won figure and no map below a 1.00 rating. He was the highest-rated player on eight maps and maintained a 1.50 rating across the playoffs.

One of his most important performances came before the final. Spirit eliminated Team Vitality in the quarter-finals to end a six-match losing streak against the French organisation, a run that had stretched across roughly two years. donk posted a 1.46 rating in that series as Spirit cleared one of the opponents that had repeatedly stopped them before Paris.

Get donk’d.

Your CS2 at EWC26 @Sony MVP – @donk1337! 🏅 pic.twitter.com/K8AuX1MXHy

— Esports World Cup (@EWC_EN) August 23, 2026