TSM earn APAC its second ever international win over North America

TSM earned a historic victory over the reigning RLCS World Champions NRG on the first day of the Rocket League Esports World Cup. The Asia-Pacific representative defeated their opponents 3-1 to set up a match against Team Vitality in the upper bracket tomorrow. German professional Leonardo Raffael "Catalysm" Christ Ramos, who has been competing in APAC since January 2025, was responsible for six goals. NRG, whose top 12 placement at the Paris Major had elicited doubts from the general public over their form coming into this event, will now have to recover against a strong FURIA squad in the lower bracket to have any chance of achieving a respectable result at the EWC 2026.

Last year, Nik Aiman Hakim "Sphinx" Bin Nik Azhar led a Virtus.pro squad to victories over Shopify Rebellion and MIBR at the 2025 World Championship Play-in, earning APAC its first wins against North America and South America in Rocket League Esports history. While APAC has often struggled against the traditional major regions, Sphinx has been a source of optimism for APAC fans. Considering NRG came into the event as the #1 seed from North America, the Malaysian professional has now earned the region its most prestigious victory at an international competition, alongside teammates Catalysm and Kevin "Kevin" Ameye.

Overall, this has been a poor day for North America. Europe’s fourth seed Ninjas in Pyjamas eStar earned their first victory over a North American team this year, defeating the NA second seed Shopify Rebellion 3-1. FUT Esports, who had survived the gruelling EWC LCQ to reach the Main Event, lost 1-3 to Twisted Minds. The pair will now face each other in the lower bracket tomorrow. It wasn’t even easy going for Spacestation Gaming who were North America’s lowest seed before FUT Esports qualified. They managed to defeat MIBR.LOS 3-2 in an attritional battle featuring three overtimes. The Utah-based organization will face crowd favourites Karmine Corp in the winners bracket tomorrow.