Key Takeaways
- Dplus Kia swept Karmine Corp 3-0 to win the $600,000 League of Legends title in Paris.
- Team Vitality Fem beat Natus Vincere PH 4-2 to defend its Esports World Cup MWI crown.
- LYON won Free Fire with 155 points, edging AG.AL’s 122 and LOUD’s 111 in Paris.
The 2026 Esports World Cup marked the first edition held outside Saudi Arabia. Organizers moved the tournament to Paris Expo Porte de Versailles after announcing the relocation in May. The event drew more than 2,000 players from more than 200 clubs across 24 games and 25 tournaments, backed by a record prize pool topping $75 million.
Four titles were active over the last week: Dota 2, League of Legends, Free Fire, and the MLBB Women’s Invitational.
League of Legends Delivers the Biggest Crowd
League of Legends pulled the largest audience of the week. Esports Charts tracked a peak of 1,449,163 concurrent viewers for the tournament, with the semifinal between T1 and Karmine Corp drawing about 1,447,194 peak viewers on its own.
The playoff field formed after a GSL-style group stage that sent eight teams into a single-elimination bracket: Bilibili Gaming, T1, AG.AL, Dplus Kia, Gen.G, Karmine Corp, Hanwha Life Esports, and JD Gaming. Dplus Kia beat Bilibili Gaming 2-1 in the quarterfinals, then Gen.G 2-1 in the semifinals, before closing out Karmine Corp 3-0 in the grand final. Karmine Corp reached the final by beating T1 2-1 in its own semifinal. Gen.G beat T1 in the third-place match.
Gosugamers reported that Dplus Kia bot laner Smash earned MVP honors, and that the win marked the team’s first international title since 2020. Dplus Kia collected $600,000 from the $2 million prize pool. Karmine Corp took home $340,000 as runner-up.
Team Vitality Fem Defends Its Crown
Team Vitality Fem beat Natus Vincere PH 4-2 in the MLBB Women’s Invitational grand final, defending the title it won previously. Natus Vincere PH reached the final by beating Galaxy Phoenix 3-0 in the semifinals, while Team Vitality Fem got past Geltek Cyber Team 3-1. Geltek Cyber Team then took third place with a 3-0 win over Galaxy Phoenix.
The tournament peaked at about 565,483 concurrent viewers, with the Vitality-NAVI final drawing the largest crowd of the bracket. Pre-event materials listed a $525,000 purse for the tournament, while a public schedule page later listed $500,000, leaving the final payout figure unresolved.
LYON Tops a Crowded Free Fire Field
LYON won the Free Fire title with 155 points, ahead of AG.AL on 122 and LOUD on 111, according to the official Esports World Cup results dataset. The event called LYON’s total a record-breaking points haul. The tournament ran as a multi-day battle royale format rather than a head-to-head bracket.
Twenty-four teams were split into two groups of 12 for the opening rounds on July 15 and 16, with the top four from each group advancing directly and the bottom two eliminated. Teams that finished fifth through 10th moved into a survival stage on July 17, where the top four advanced to join the group winners in a 12-team grand final on July 18.
Esportsverse listed the total Free Fire purse at $1,025,000. Publicly available results confirmed LOUD’s third-place payout at $120,000, Twisted Minds’ fourth-place share at $80,000, and Fluxo W7M’s fifth-place total at $61,000.
League of Legends outdrew every other title with a public viewership figure this week. It’s 1,449,163 peak topped the MLBB Women’s Invitational’s 565,483 and Dota 2’s 324,997. Free Fire’s peak viewer count was not exposed in the publicly indexed sources.
Dota 2 Grand Final Still Unresolved at Cutoff
Dota 2 was the one title left open at the close of the week. Team Yandex beat Vici Gaming 2-0 to lock in third place, but the grand final between Betboom Team and PARIVISION remained live as of 6:50 p.m. Paris time on Sunday, with Liquipedia still listing first place as “TBD.” Betboom Team reached the final by beating Vici Gaming 2-0 in the semifinals, while PARIVISION got past Team Yandex 2-1.
Dota 2 carried a $2 million prize pool of its own. Esports Charts and Field Level Media reported a $750,000 winner’s share, with Team Yandex banking $200,000 for third and Vici Gaming taking $120,000 for fourth. The tournament peaked at 324,997 concurrent viewers, with the Betboom-PARIVISION final logging the largest crowd of the week for the title.
Integrity Investigation Shakes up Dota 2 Field
The week’s biggest controversy hit Dota 2. The publication gosugamers.net reported that Playtime players Vintage and Darkmago were suspended amid an integrity investigation, and that the organization later parted ways with Vintage, Darkmago, and a third player, Frank. Playtime forfeited its match against Vici Gaming and was eliminated from the tournament. Vici Gaming advanced to face 1w Team in its place.
What Comes Next
The Paris edition closes out a run that started July 6 and continues through August 23 across the city’s venues, with the second week nearly complete. With three champions already decided and Dota 2’s grand final resolving shortly after the reporting cutoff, the week gave organizers, sponsors, and broadcasters a clear read on which titles are pulling the biggest crowds heading into the tournament’s remaining weeks. League of Legends’ viewership numbers, in particular, give Riot Games and tournament organizers a strong data point as they plan future events in the Paris market.
