Luis Guadalupe ‘DarkAngel’ Castillo Gomez earned a remarkable victory at the Esports World Cup 2026, recovering from the brink of defeat in the quarter-finals to go on to claim the EWC crown.
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and Apex Legends became the first titles to crown champions at Week 1 of the Esports World Cup 2026 in Saturday’s action.
Saturday also saw Valorant set up an NA clash between NRG and 100 Thieves for its Sunday Grand Final, and UNLIMIT shocking prevailing in the Apex Legends tournament.
DarkAngel wins first EWC 2026 title
Esports organization, Natus Vincere, had put a lot of emphasis on DarkAngel on their social media ahead of his showing at EWC, as their hope of winning big Club Championship points in Week 1 of the event.
The Mexican repaid their investment win full by delivering the trophy to NAVI after a dominant 5-1 Grand Final victory over Japanese runner-up Kenta ‘mi2ha4’ Ichihara.
His most significant title to date, DarkAngel was nerveless throughout the Grand Final and throughout the Finals bracket run, but the run was not without its challenges.
The Terry main was 0-3 down in his quarter-final contest against veteran fighter Reynald Tacsuan, but made impressive adjustments to recover the series, eventually prevailing 5-4.
Taking down Naoki ‘Nemo’ Nemoto in the semis, DarkAngel and mi2ha4 set up a clash of Terry and Rock, the signature characters of FF:CotW, but after an emotion semi triumph over Laggia, the Japanese fighter could not muster his best in the Grand Final, leading to DarkAngel’s triumph and the first trophy lift of EWC 2026.
Are you looking forward to more FGC titles at EWC 2026? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord.
Additionally, the full Esports World Cup 2026 schedule is out now with a full breakdown of all seven weeks.
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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