Rocket League Esports World Cup groups announced

The Esports World Cup (EWC) has officially announced the groups for its Rocket League event, set to take place from August 12 to 16. The event, which will be hosted in Paris for the first time, brings together sixteen teams from around the world to compete, including reigning champions Karmine Corp. These sixteen teams have been split into two groups of eight, with four teams from each group able to make the playoffs.

The tournament begins on August 12 following the conclusion of the Last Chance Qualifier on August 10, which determines the final team to qualify for the event. The two groups are as follows:

The final spot for group A will be determined by the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ), a three day LAN qualifier that will take place in Paris before the start of the EWC. The qualifier is first come, first serve open registration, allowing teams from around the world who didn’t originally qualify for the event to sign up. Already a number of well known squads like Gen.G Mobil1 Racing, BS+ Competition, Man City Esports, FUT Esports, and Team Stallions have put their names down for the qualifier. The LCQ begins on August 08.

The OCE first seed will be determined by a tiebreaker set to take place on July 26 between PWR and Wildcard, who both ended the regular RLCS season with equal ranking points in Oceania. The winner will qualify for the 2026 World Championship and the EWC, making the tiebreaker one of the most pivotal series in the history of Oceanian Rocket League.

The two groups were determined through a random draw behind closed doors by the EWC. The random selection had four pools of teams based on a seeding determined by the EWC rulebook. Each group contains one team from pool #1, one team from pool #2, four teams from pool #3 and two teams from pool #4. A region’s representation in a single group is limited to 50%. The pools contain:

As a result of the draw, the two Major champions from RLCS 2026, Karmine Corp and Gentle Mates, could face clash in group B. Each group will play in an eight-team GSL group, which works in a similar way to a double elimination bracket where teams need to pick up two wins to qualify for the playoffs, while two losses will lead to elimination. All upper bracket matches will be a best-of-five and all elimination matches in the lower bracket will be a best-of-seven, giving teams the needed room to decide their fate. The eight teams who reach the playoffs will compete in a single elimination bracket where all the matches, apart from the third-place decider, will be best-of-seven. The winning team of the event earns $400,000 in prizepool and gets their organization 1000 EWC club points.