100 Thieves Claims Valorant Title as Esports World Cup 2026 Crowns Champions Across Paris

August 5, 2026 5 Min Read

Here is the latest on Esports World Cup 2026. 100 Thieves defeated NRG Esports 3-1 to win the Valorant championship at the 2026 Esports World Cup in Paris. Taking home $600,000 and 1,000 points toward the tournament’s overall Club Championship. According to a report from the Saudi Press Agency. The win is one of several titles already decided at the sprawling, multi-game tournament. This runs from July 6 through August 23 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles and features finals across 24 different esports.

Key Facts

100 Thieves beat NRG Esports 3-1 in the Valorant grand final on July 13, 2026, winning $600,000 and Club Championship points, per the Saudi Press Agency.
100 Thieves rallied from 3-9 down on the decisive Ascent map to force overtime and close out the match 14-12.
Nongshim RedForce, the reigning Masters Santiago champions, finished third after beating BBL Esports in the third-place match; 100 Thieves had eliminated Nongshim RedForce in the semifinals.
Other 2026 Esports World Cup champions crowned so far include Unlimit (Apex Legends), DarkAngel (Fatal Fury), LYON (Free Fire), Team Vitality (Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Women’s International), PVISION (Dota 2) and DPLUS KIA (League of Legends).
The Esports World Cup runs July 6-August 23, 2026, in Paris, France, with finals still to come in Teamfight Tactics, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Street Fighter 6, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Tekken 8, Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League and Counter-Strike 2, among others.
More than 100,000 tickets had already been sold for the event, underscoring the tournament’s growing scale as a centralized, multi-title esports championship. This detail matters for anyone following Esports World Cup 2026.

A Comeback for the Ages in the Valorant Final (Esports World Cup 2026)

The headline result from the tournament’s opening weeks came in Valorant. Also, where North American organization 100 Thieves outlasted NRG Esports in a back-and-forth grand final. According to the Saudi Press Agency’s recap. 100 Thieves took the first two maps before NRG answered with a win on Haven to stay alive. The series came down to Ascent. Where 100 Thieves found themselves trailing 3-9 — a deficit that would sink most teams in a best-of-three map — before mounting a comeback that forced overtime and ultimately closed out the map. And the championship, 14-12. This detail matters for anyone following Esports World Cup 2026.

The win capped a tournament run in which 100 Thieves defeated MIBR.LOS in the quarterfinals before eliminating Nongshim RedForce. The reigning Masters Santiago champions, in the semifinals. Nongshim RedForce regrouped to beat BBL Esports in the third-place decider. For now, giving the Korean squad a bronze finish, with BBL Esports rounding out the top four. For their championship run, 100 Thieves earned $600,000 in prize money as well as 1,000 points toward the Esports World Cup’s season-long Club Championship standings. A metric that rewards organizations for strong finishes across multiple games rather than a single title.

A Tournament Built Around Breadth, Not Just One Game (Esports World Cup 2026)

What sets the Esports World Cup apart from single-title championships like Worlds or the Valorant Champions Tour finale is its scope. The 2026 edition, staged at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, spans 24 different competitive games across genres — first-person shooters. Multiplayer online battle arenas, fighting games, battle royales. Sports titles and racing games — all feeding into an overall club standings race that rewards esports organizations for fielding competitive rosters across as many titles as possible.

That format has already produced a wide spread of champions in the tournament’s first several weeks. Unlimit claimed the Apex Legends Global Series Split 1 title on July 11. The same day DarkAngel won the Fatal Fury competition. Still, the following week brought titles in Free Fire, where LYON prevailed. And in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Women’s International bracket, won by Team Vitality. By July 19, Dota 2 and League of Legends had crowned their own champions: PVISION took the Dota 2 title. Meanwhile, DPLUS KIA — a South Korean organization with League of Legends pedigree — won the League of Legends competition.

Each of these results feeds into the same Club Championship point totals that 100 Thieves boosted with its Valorant win. In fact, setting up a season-long race among the world’s top esports organizations to be crowned the tournament’s most decorated club once all 24 titles have been decided.

What’s Still to Come

With the tournament running through August 23. More than half of its game-by-game finals remain on the schedule. Upcoming championship matches are set for Teamfight Tactics, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Street Fighter 6, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Tekken 8, Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League and Counter-Strike 2, among other titles still to be decided. Also, counter-Strike 2 and Rainbow Six Siege in particular are expected to draw significant attention given the size and passion of their existing competitive scenes. Meanwhile, the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 competition will be an early proving ground for that title’s esports circuit.

Organizers have touted strong attendance figures for the event. With more than 100,000 tickets already sold as of mid-tournament, according to coverage of the event. That figure reflects the Esports World Cup’s rapid growth since its debut. Meanwhile, as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund-backed effort to establish Riyadh and. For this edition, Paris as a hub for centralized global esports competition continues to expand in scale and game variety.

Why the Result Matters

For 100 Thieves, the Valorant title is a marquee result in a year when the North American esports organization has looked to reassert itself on the international stage after a run of titles increasingly dominated by teams from other regions. Beating NRG Esports — a fellow North American rival — in a come-from-behind final adds extra weight to the win regionally. Meanwhile, the broader Esports World Cup framework means the victory also strengthens 100 Thieves’ position in the season-long club standings race that spans all 24 competing titles.

For now, more broadly, the spread of champions across Apex Legends, Fatal Fury, Free Fire, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Dota 2. League of Legends and now Valorant illustrates the format’s core appeal: rather than crowning a single champion in a single game. The Esports World Cup is building toward an overall picture of which esports organizations are performing best across the industry as a whole. With CS2, Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League, Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, PUBG and Teamfight Tactics finals still ahead. The Club Championship race remains wide open heading into the tournament’s final three weeks in Paris.