100 Thieves defeated their NA Rivals NRG 3-1 in a commanding showing to take the EWC 2026 Valorant title in Paris.
The Valorant Champions 2025 winners could not recapture their Paris magic as they fell to a superior showing, which returned 100T to the Valorant esports elite.
100T shows a perfect gameplan on Breeze
The Bo5 final started with NRG’s first pick of Breeze, but you would not know it was their pick based on the gameplay.
NRG started with a pistol and conversion, but 100 Thieves instantly recovered, winning the third round and proceeding to take the game by the scruff of the neck on the Attack side.
The Timothée ‘Lavigne ‘Timotino’ Dupont and Peter ‘Asuna’ Mazuryk masterfully exploited their Agents’ kits as Neon and Phoenix, largely blowing away an NRG who were read like a book to take a 9-3 half-time lead.
In the second half, a series of traded rounds resulted in NRG fighting back to 10-7, but another Thrifty round was delivered by Jordan ‘vora’ Pulwer which broke NRG’s momentum, leading to a 13-7 victory for 100T.
100 Thieves put NRG to the sword on Sunset
NRG were hoping that Sunset would be a sunrise for their struggling individuals, but they continued to struggle as their Attacking side was easily rebuffed as they fell to a 1-8 deficit early on in the map.
Only Adam ‘mada’ Pampuch was offering up any resistance in the first half, and another 9-3 half followed.
On the other side of the server, Matthew ‘Cryocells’ Panganiban’s Cypher was showing incredible form on both sides of the server, delivering 12 and 11 kills on the Defending and Attacking sides.
Again, after a dominant half, NRG threatened to put a few rounds together, but they had given themselves much too much work to do.
100 Thieves cleanly delivered the last three rounds to put them on the brink of the EWC 2026 title at 2-0 up, moving onto Haven.
NRG fight back on Haven
It was now do-or-die for NRG, but the Valorant Champions Paris winners were not to be downed without some resistance.
Finally, on the defensive side of Haven, NRG finally seemed to have the tactical control that so often exemplifies their roster.
After failing to convert their pistol round victory, NRG shut 100T down time and time again, with few rounds ending in a plant.
Again, mada was only for 100T, but crucially, Georgio ‘keiko’ Sanassy was online for this map, finally adding that vital second star to the map.
With a 10-2 half, it was a matter of NRG finding those crucial Attack rounds to convert the map. In the end, they did so easily, converting the map 13-2 and finally heating up individually.
NRG fall at the final hurdle on Ascent as 100T triumph
NRG’s momentum continued on Ascent, racking up six rounds to open up map four of the EWC 2026 Grand Final.
The NA roster seemed to be on their way to a climactic Map 5, especially after closing out the half 9-3 in a dominant fashion.
However, there seemed to be a twist in the tale as 100T shut NRG’s Attack side down, only giving ujp one round as they raced to equalize the series 10-10.
It was now a series of individual moments. NRG seemed to finally recover, moving to two map points at 12-10, but 100T did not crumble under that pressure, shutting NRG down to take it to Overtime.
That Overtime would be 100T’s as they retained their momentum to deliver the EWC title to their organization with a 14-12 scoreline, returning 100T to Valorant silverware for the first time since 2024.
Where does that leave the teams going into Stage 2? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord.
Additionally, see our interview with NRG’s Ethan, and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter!
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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