Liquid, 100 Thieves and BC.Game Reach EWC 2026 Playoffs

3 min readWinio Team

Liquid, 100 Thieves and BC.Game Advance, but Only One Can Reach EWC 2026

Liquid, 100 Thieves, BC.Game, BIG and HEROIC have all advanced to the playoffs of the Esports World Cup 2026 Open Qualifier. Most of the international favorites survived the 64-team group stage, but the playoff draw created a major problem: Liquid, 100 Thieves and BC.Game are now competing for the same qualification spot.

The LAN qualifier is taking place in Paris from August 7 to 9. The 64 participants were divided into 16 double-elimination groups, with two teams from each group advancing to the playoffs.

The remaining 32 teams will now compete in a single-elimination bracket. Only four will qualify for the $2 million main event. Every match is played as a best-of-three.

How the Favorites Reached the Playoffs

TeamGroup-stage resultsMap record
Liquid2-0 vs Dhala, 2-0 vs Metizport4-0
100 Thieves2-0 vs SadFamous, 2-0 vs NADE4-0
BIG2-0 vs z to forward, 2-0 vs Fluxo4-0
HEROIC2-0 vs REM, 2-1 vs 9INE4-1
BC.Game2-1 vs BASEMENT BOYS, 2-0 vs 1win4-1

The five teams won all ten of their group-stage series and finished with a combined 20-2 map record.

Who wins?

All Matches
All matches and predictions

Only One of Liquid, 100 Thieves and BC.Game Can Qualify

The biggest story is the playoff draw. Liquid, 100 Thieves and BC.Game were placed in the same section of the bracket alongside FOKUS, Acend, 1win, OG and INFINITE.

The opening matches are:

MatchStage
Liquid vs 1winRound of 32
BC.Game vs OGRound of 32
100 Thieves vs INFINITERound of 32
FOKUS vs AcendRound of 32

This means that at least two of Liquid, 100 Thieves and BC.Game will miss the main event, regardless of how well they played in the group stage.

BIG, HEROIC, fnatic and NRG were placed in different sections of the bracket, while three of the most popular teams in the qualifier must eliminate one another. The group stage confirmed the favorites’ level; the draw will now determine which of them actually reaches the main event.

AI-powered predictions for the EWC 2026 Open Qualifier playoffs are available on **Winio**.

Only One of Liquid, 100 Thieves and BC.Game Can Qualify
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