NAVI was the first team among the participants of the 2026 Esports World Cup to lift the championship trophy. The Ukrainian organization, owned by Maksym Krippa, won the Fatal Fury division and immediately took the top spot in the tournament’s club rankings. For this result, the team received the maximum 1,000 points in the EWC standings.
The star of the final showdown was NAVI’s Fatal Fury player, Mexican Luis Guadalupe “DarkAngel” Castillo Gómez. In the decisive match, he gave Virtus.pro’s Japanese player mi2ha4 no chance, closing out the grand final with a convincing 5–1 victory.
In addition to becoming the first EWC 2026 champion, DarkAngel also brought the club a substantial financial reward— $250,000 in prize money.
His success at the tournament paved the way for DarkAngel to compete in yet another major event. The FATAL FURY champion received an invitation to the 2026 SNK World Championship, where the discipline’s top players will compete for a share of the $2.5 million prize pool. The final stage of the tournament will take place November 27–29 in Stockholm.
NAVI’s Path to Its First Gold Medal at EWC 2026
Last year, the Mexican player finished third in the Fatal Fury tournament, earning the organization 500 club points.
This year, the NAVI player began his run in Group CC, where, after losing to Vxbao in the upper bracket final (2–3), he was forced to fight his way through the lower bracket. There, he left Pida and mok no chance, and in the next round, he defeated SCORE of Elite Esports and Kindevu of Team Falcons. In the playoffs, DarkAngel defeated Reynald (5:4) and Nemo of SOL (5:3), after which he confidently defeated mi2ha4 of Virtus.pro (5:1) in the grand final to become the first EWC 2026 champion in the Fatal Fury discipline.
NAVI’s next challenge at the 2026 Esports World Cup will be the MLBB Women’s Invitational. The tournament will take place from July 14 to 18, and the world’s top 16 women’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang teams will compete for $525,000 in prize money and 3,350 club points in the overall EWC standings.