Team Spirit is officially continuing its 2026 comeback with a championship victory at the Esports World Cup event in Paris, France, where it defeated upstart challenger FUT Esports in the grand final.
Spirit had set itself apart as arguably the best pro Counter-Strike 2 team in the world during what was a dominant 2025 season, but had struggled to recapture that same form in 2026. Things began to turn around with a PGL Astana victory at May, and securing the trophy at EWC only furthers that momentum as the team sets its sights on the second Major of the year.
Spirit wins at EWC 2026, donk dominates grand finals
The Spirit victory at EWC 2026 was no big surprise, and neither was the team’s charge being led by young phenom donk.
The win did not come easily. Spirt was challenged in the 2026 Esports World Cup final by FUT Esports, a relatively unheralded team sitting outside the top 10 of the official VRS rankings. But while Spirit was the clear favorite on paper, FUT wasn’t willing to stand idle while its opponent picked up the trophy.
FUT won the first game on Cache before losing only after forcing overtime in both the second and third games, on Anubis and Ancient, respectively. But with both overtime tilts resulting in losses, FUT seemed to lose momentum in the fourth map. Spirit ran out to a 10-2 halftime lead on Nuke and closed it out from there, winning 13-5 to take the grand finals series at EWC 3-1.
donk was unsurprisingly the dominant force in the series, racking up a series-leading 88 frags with only tN1R close to him in impact among Spirit’s ranks.
FUT was keyed by Turkish player xfl0ud on Nuke, whose 25 frags beat out donk’s 22 and proved pivotal in the close game. But xfl0ud fell off dramatically from there, sitting at the bottom of the scoreboard on Anubis and managing only 5 frags in the series-deciding fourth game. donk, meanwhile, remained a consistent contributor, top-fragging for his side on three of the four maps played.
It’s a continuation of winning ways for Team Spirit. After collecting four top-level trophies in 2025, the side was held without an S-tier trophy prior to PGL Astana in May. The Esports World Cup victory now makes it two in 2026 for Team Spirit, with more opportunities yet to come.
Spirit had a mixed path en route to the final. The side was forced to go through Vitality in a tight quarterfinals series, but otherwise faced B8 and Legacy, moving on past both opponents with relative ease.
FUT will hope to build on the promising result. The team beat FURIA in the semifinals in what was a significant upset, and that came after twice besting MOUZ at EWC.
For Spirit, the real question becomes whether the team can translate this result and others like it into success at the next CS2 Major. donk and his teammates have already earned the top spot in the VRS rankings and seem a ready threat at any tournament they attend, but it has been close to two years since Spirit was able to achieve Major-championship glory.
