Nassim "
nass" Bali has defeated reigning 1v1 World Champion, Hisham
"Nwpo" Alqadi, 4-2 in the grand final of the
Rocket League 1v1
2026 World Championship to take home all the honours and prize cut of $50,000. The Moroccan professional, who came sixth in the European 1v1 Open last year, triumphed in his region this year by narrowly defeating Team Vitality star Alexis "
zen" Bernie 4-3 in the grand final. He was then matched up against North American representative, João "
diaz" Henrique, in his first match at the 1v1 Championship, defeating the Brazilian 4-2. Nass still remains a competitor in the 3v3 World Championship, having defeated Man City Esports today in the Playoffs alongside
Gentle Mates teammates Oskar "
Oski" Gozdowski and Archie "
Archie" Pickthall.
The 1v1 tournament was expanded to four teams in its second ever edition, with one representative coming from Europe, North America, South America and MENA. Subsequently, its prizepool was almost doubled to $85,000 with all four competitors taking home a guaranteed $10,000. Nass, diaz , Danilo "kv1" Michelini, and Nwpo represented each region respectively.
Reigning champion toppled
Nwpo, was crowned the first ever 1v1 World Champion last season after overcoming French player, Axel "Mawkzy" Timone, in a 4-1 series. Again, the 19-year-old came into this season as one of the favourites. He dominated the MENA 1v1 Open until he faced his Twisted Minds teammate Mohammed Khalid "trk511" Alotaibi in the grand final, where he was forced into a brutal seven-game series win. In the opening match of this event, he defeated South American representative Kv1 4-1 before facing nass in the grand finals. The Saudi Arabian professional was coming off a crushing defeat to Spacestation Gaming in the lower bracket of the 3v3 Playoffs, where his team, Twisted Minds, bowed out with a 9th-12th place finish after a 2-4 loss to the North American side.
Diaz, who also represented North America in 1v1 at the Raleigh Major last year, where he lost a series to Nwpo, managed to qualify again this season. He defeated Jason "Firstkiller" Corral in a tight 4-3 grand final during the North American Open. However, he was also taken down by nass in the semi-finals earlier this week.
Danilo "kv1" Michelini was the only player competing in the 1v1 or 2v2 competitions, who was not also appearing in the World Championship on a 3v3 roster. The BS+COMPETITION professional, defeated last year’s South American representative at the Birmingham Major, Yan Bernardo "yANXNZ" Xisto Nolasco, in the semi-finals of the South American Open before beating his teammate Celso "wisty" Souza Bispo in the grand finals 4-3. He was convincingly beaten by Nwpo in the semi-finals at this event.
