The Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026 has officially crowned its first champion. Natus Vincere’s Luis Guadalupe “DarkAngel” Castillo Gomez delivered a dominant performance to win the FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves tournament, defeating Japan’s Kenta “mi2ha4” Ichihara 5-1 in the Grand Final.
With the victory, the Mexican fighting game veteran not only secured the championship trophy but also became the first title winner of the 2026 Esports World Cup in Paris.
FATAL FURY at EWC26: DarkAngel Dominates the Grand Final
Competing for Natus Vincere (NAVI), DarkAngel competed in the tournament as the only returning player who had made it to the top eight in the previous year’s tournament to have progressed to the finals.
DarkAngel is generally considered as one of the best players of the character Terry Bogard and showed great level of poise and accuracy during the championship match.
The grand final which was a best-of-nine affair was quickly dominated by DarkAngel as he took an early 3-0 lead.
mi2ha4 of Virtus.pro fought back to win the fourth set 2-1. But DarkAngel quickly asserted his dominance and won the next two sets to emerge victorious 5-1.
Following the final round, DarkAngel celebrated an emotional career milestone by placing his championship key into the tournament trophy.
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Third-Place Match
The fight for third place also offered plenty of excitement.
Japanese veteran Naoki “Nemo” Nemoto won 5-3 from Laggia and thereby secured himself a medal after having barely missed out on the final at 5-4 vs. mi2ha4.
DarkAngel not only brought in $250,000 in prize money but also got Natus Vincere 1,000 EWC Club Championship Points, helping them gain a good position among all clubs in the world at the very start of the year 2026 season. Second place in the championship gave mi2ha4 $130,000 and 750 points.
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