Dplus Kia wins League of Legends at Esports World Cup 2026 - Game News

Team Dplus Kia (Korea) officially lifted the championship trophy League of Legends in Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026 after an overwhelming 3-0 victory over the champions EWC 2025 – Karmine Corp.

This victory marked their first major international tournament title Dplus Kia since 2020.

Photo: Esports World Cup

+ Dplus Kia’s Journey to the Throne

Despite winning 3-0 in the Final, the LCK representative’s journey to the throne went through many challenges:

Group Stage: Dplus Kia soon fell to the losing bracket after losing to AG AL. However, they came back strongly with two overwhelming 2-0 victories over FURIA (Brazil) and G2 Esports (Europe) to advance to the Playoffs round.
Playoffs round: The Korean representative continued his sublime form by defeating Bilibili Gaming (LPL number one seed, MSI runner-up), before defeating the defending champion. EWC 2025 Gen.G in the semi-finals.

Finals: Facing Karmine Corp – the team that just created a big surprise when “coming back” to defeat the reigning world champion T1 in the semi-finals. Dplus Kia Completely dominated the game:
- Game 1: Dplus Kia continuously pressing and creating distance, closing the game with a score of 1-0.
- Game 2: The standoff lasted for a long time, Dplus Kia took advantage of Karmine Corp’s late-stage loophole to double the gap 2-0.
- Game 3: The LCK representative showed absolute superiority, completing a convincing 3-0 victory.

+ Personal Rewards and Titles

EWC 2026 championship brought home to Dplus Kia Memorable rewards and milestones:

Bonuses & Score: Dplus Kia Receive 600,000 USD bonus and 1,000 points on the Club Championship rankings.

Smash players win SONY MVP: 19-year-old ADC Sin “Smash” Guem-jae received the SONY MVP title and an additional $25,000 in bonuses. He finished the tournament with an impressive KDA of 8.1 on his birthday.
ShowMaker and Career’s feelings:
- ShowMaker: “It’s been five years since I was last on the international stage. I’m very proud of myself and now I’m extremely excited.”
- Career: “In the early stages of game three in the bot lane, we got the first kills… I was playing the champion I was most confident in. It was then that I felt like I had won.”

+ Third Place Match: Gen.G Defeats T1

Before the Finals, two former EWC champions, Gen.G and T1, clashed in the Third Place match:

Result: Gen.G won a close 2-1 victory over T1 after a series of tense matches.
Prize: Third place brought Gen.G 220,000 USD in prize money.

+ Impressions of Vietnamese Representatives at EWC 2026

Vietnam has two representatives participating in the subject League of Legends in EWC 2026 including GAM Esports and Team Secret Whales (TSW):

Team Secret Whales (TSW): Stopped early after losses to Sentinels and Karmine Corp.
GAM Esports: Excellently defeated Spain’s representative Movistar KOI (MKOI) with a score of 2-1 in the decisive match to win the right to face T1.