Jul 26, 2026.
18 games of Grand Final action saw Virtus.pro claim the PUBG: Battlegrounds at Esports World Cup 2026 top prize after an early lead and consistent, excellent play led them past everyone else.
PARIS, France (July 26, 2026) -- Virtus.pro claimed the PUBG: Battlegrounds at Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC) trophy after three days of gruelling Grand Final action which went all the way to the maximum 18 games. The four-man squad laid down the gauntlet with a commanding performance on day one, which then saw their consistency rewarded with the trophy, the $650,000 grand prize, and 1,000 Club Championship points.
Virtus.pro locked in their spot in the final after finishing sixth in the group stage, but looked unstoppably strong from that point onwards. They picked up two wins and two second place finishes on day one of the Grand Final to rack up a huge 91 points, just two points shy of Twisted Minds' three-day total needed to win in 2025.
Day two saw just one individual match win from the eventual winners, but they claimed plenty of points through consistent play throughout the day to close day two with 126 points, setting the Match Point threshold at 136. On day three, their first match put them past the threshold, and they almost claimed the title in game 15, but Team Liquid would deny them a Winner Winner Chicken Dinner. This only delayed the inevitable, as no other team even reached the Match Point threshold, allowing Virtus.pro to win with 159 points; 33 points higher than second-place finishers The Vicious.
“It’s an insane feeling, the emotions we are going through. I’m just happy that I’ve done it with this team and no one else. Of course, I'm super proud of them,” said Nino "NIXZYEE" Mikec. “Of course we knew [we had won]. We knew when we stepped here that this was our stage. It was a nice feeling, but it was very stressful.”
On why they picked the keys of Twisted Minds, Team Falcons, and NAVI to be embedded into their trophy, he added. “They are the hardest three teams that were competing with us for EWC. We really respect those teams, so we like to have them as a token for this [win].”
For his performance throughout the tournament, Virtus.pro's Nino "NIXZYEE" Mikec was named the SONY MVP. He landed 33 kills, 32 knockdowns, and had an average survival time throughout the tournament of 21 minutes and 21 seconds. As a result of his spectacular performance, the Virtus.pro player takes home an additional $25,000 along with the MVP prize. “The grind pays off,” NIXZYEE simply said after receiving his MVP prize.
The Vicious’ win in the final game drastically shook up the standings. After securing multiple top three places in several games, they played an incredible match in Game 18, notching 11 kills and earning 10 placement points, which saw them shoot up from sixth place to second overall in the standings. This propelled them past contenders like Natus Vincere, Team Falcons, and Team Vitality, increasing their winnings from $74,000 up to $305,000 in the span of just a few minutes.
To learn more about the Esports World Cup, visit esportsworldcup.com and follow the Esports Foundation on LinkedIn.
The Esports World Cup (EWC) is a premier annual sporting event and global celebration of competitive excellence and esports fandom. The competition features a unique cross-game format that pits the world's top esports Clubs against one another for the largest prize pool in esports history. Hosted in Paris, France, in the summer of 2026, the EWC will bring gaming and esports communities together again to crown the next Esports World Cup Club Champion. esportsworldcup.com
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