Australia, Jordan, and Oman qualify for the FIFAe Finals 2026

Australia, Jordan and Oman have qualified for the final stage of the Rocket League FIFAe World Cup 2026, having navigated their way through the Asian FIFAe Continental Championships in Kuala Lumpur. The three countries join host nation Saudi Arabia as the first four confirmed teams at the World Finals, which are still expected to be held in Riyadh during October. The Australian team, featuring experienced RLCS trio Daniel "Torsos" Parsons, Lachlan "Fever" Aitchison, and Hunter "hntr" Tomeski, won the event without dropping a single game, defeating Jordan 4-0 in the grand finals. Jordan qualified with their second-place finish, while Oman qualified by beating New Zealand 4-2 in a separate Intercontinental Playoff after coming third in the Main Event.

FIFAe has organized two World Cups for Rocket League since partnering with the esport in 2024. The partnership followed FIFA’s decision not to renew its licensing agreement with Electronic Arts, agreeing a new collaboration with eFootball developer Konami to continue hosting the long-running FIFAe World Cups in 2024. Rocket League joined the collaboration that same year, allowing FIFA’s member associations to participate in the esport. The event, which has been hosted in Riyadh for the past two years, could be threatened by the geopolitical situation surrounding the Iran War in the Middle East. The Esports Nations Cup, which was set to be hosted in the same city just one month later in November was postponed to 2027, while its sister event, the Esports World Cup, was forced to relocate to Paris this year. The official location for the 2026 edition of the FIFAe World Cup has yet to be confirmed, despite teams competing in the ongoing Continental Championships.

Featuring long-time APAC professionals Kel "Blue" Joe Ang, Thrishernn "Misty" Raaj, and most notably, Nik Aiman Hakim "Sphinx" Bin Nik Azhar, who had just come off defeating the reigning World Champions NRG at the EWC, Malaysia were seen as one of the region’s stronger squads alongside heavy favourites, Australia. The veteran trio represented Malaysia at the 2025 FIFAe World Cup, even defeating South Africa in the group stage to earn a 13th-14th finish at the event. This year, they had secured their place at the Continental Championships with a comfortable second-place ranking in the Asia East and Oceania Nations League but their opening results in the group stage of this LAN presented a different picture. Draws against The Maldives, India and Indonesia, meant the team fell to third-place in the group stage, reaching the playoffs with only two wins out of seven. In the playoffs, they did manage to defeat Indonesia 4-0, but then suffered a bruising 1-4 defeat to Jordan. In the third-place decider, they were then beaten by Oman 0-4, ultimately ending all hopes of reaching the World Finals.

There were other notable players at the event. Louis Christian "LCT" Thamrun, who featured at two RLCS World Championships in 2021-22 and 2022-23, represented Indonesia, while Abhai "Abscrazy" Ponna, LCT’s former teammate who appeared at the 2022-23 Spring Major, represented India. Former Regional Open winner in Oceania, Ivason "Laxin" Tavai, represented New Zealand, narrowly losing out to Oman in the Intercontinental Playoff.