R8 Esports became the first team to reach the 2026
Rocket League World Championship after a convincing unbeaten run in the
Middle East and North Africa Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ). Featuring a roster of Mohammad "
M7md" Almutairi, Abdullah
"Abdullah" Alsanie, and Ghazi
"Ghaazi" Al-Otaibi, the team was seen as a favourite coming into the qualifier, having recently competed at the Paris Major ahead of long-time MENA giants Team Falcons. R8 Esports will join Twisted Minds and Team Falcons as MENA’s representatives at the World Championship where they will face Asia-Pacific’s #1 seed TSM in the opening match-up of the Play-In.
Boasting some of the region’s strongest individuals, the roster formed ahead of Open #2, when R8 Esports acquired the core of ROC Esports before adding up-and-comer M7md to the mix. An early top-eight defeat to Twisted Minds failed to derail the team, as the roster grew quickly into the season, earning three regional runners-up finishes and a title win in Open #4. R8 Esports became such a threat to the top dogs that Team Falcons suffered elimination to the organization twice in Split 2. As a result, Team Falcons failed to qualify for an RLCS LAN for the first time since the 2022-23 Spring Major, with R8 Esports profiting at their expense.
Strong favourites
Coming into the MENA LCQ, R8 Esports were considered heavy favourites for the spot at the World Championship, having only narrowly missed out on automatic qualification during the Paris Major. However, their closest rivals in the qualifier, Team Stallions (Nush, Trook, Twiz), recently took them down during the Saudi eLeague 2026 Major #1, even defeating Twisted Minds during a lower bracket run to the finals. R8 Esports started confidently with a 3-0 record in the swiss stage before winning an easy matchup in the group stage against Road to Texas (D7oMQ, Talal, RPSONG) to reach the playoffs without breaking a sweat. The team secured a 4-2 win over third seed DOS (DrKnown, ops, Suspect) in the upper bracket of the playoffs before facing the experienced NMT (M7sn, Nadr, T7LM) in the semifinals, a match that featured three overtimes before R8 Esports earned a 4-2 victory. Their main rivals before the event, Team Stallions, lost to DOS 2-4 on the other side of the bracket, creating a rematch in the grand finals of the event. With all the momentum behind them and the knowledge that they had already beaten DOS in this event, R8 Esports came out swinging, outscoring their opponents 12-6 in a 4-0 sweep, qualifying for the World Championship with relative ease.
As a result, Ghaazi and Abdullah have now repeated this feat twice, having been a part of the ROC Esports squad that qualified through the MENA LCQ in RLCS 2025 to reach Lyon. The duo will now feature at an RLCS World Championship for the second time in their careers, adding to already strong portfolios as MENA professionals. Furthermore, Abdullah takes R8 Esports, an organization under whom he competed with in his infancy as a player during RLCS 2024, to the heights of RLCS competition for the first time. M7md makes his first RLCS World Championship at the tender age of 16, building a strong case as one of the most exciting players to come out of the region since Hisham
"Nwpo" Alqadi. The young prospect is already in for a busy end to the year, having received a direct invitation to the
Esports Nations Cup with Kuwait. Together, the trio form a strong roster with upset potential, who will be one of the favourites to make it out of the Play-In bracket at the World Championship but will likely have to face a familiar foe in the form of Team Falcons.
