EU and NA get humbled as Brazil and the East dominate the Demacia Cup on Day One

Day One of the 2026 Demacia Cup Global Invitational is over, and it’s not looking good for the LCS and LEC. With a combined 0-4 record between the two regions — including ’s loss to CBLOL’s fourth seed — a major turnaround will be needed in the coming days if they want to avoid outright humiliation at the event. Joining them is the LCP’s sole representative, , who also had a less-than-stellar showing against .

On the other end of the spectrum, and as expected, the LCK and LPL teams remained largely undefeated, with suffering the LPL’s only loss after being matched against LCK’s .

With the first round now over, teams will transition into the best-of-three phase of the Swiss Stage for the next five days. Teams that win their second match will advance directly to the Knockout Stage, while the others will have to keep fighting through up to Round 4 for one of the five remaining spots in the top eight.

Despite coming into the tournament with a substitute jungler in , RED Canids did not pull any punches against their European opponents.

The team made quick work of NAVI from the early game onward, building a lead through immaculate bot lane play and well-executed dives that put the NAVI duo in an irrecoverable position. From there, RED simply snowballed out of control.

Though tried to pull off his usual antics, he was given little to no help from his teammates, with NAVI being thoroughly outplayed across the map. This left the jungler with little opportunity to mount a comeback, despite being on one of the strongest junglers on the patch in Qiyana.

RED Canids now advance to the qualification matches, though they certainly have their work cut out for them. As the only Western team currently sitting at 1-0, they are guaranteed to face either an LCK or LPL opponent next.

That one was nasty—even more so than the previous match.

Losing in under 24 minutes, were never really in the game, with being particularly hard hit from minute one. After a failed early invade, the jungler ended the game 0/6/0, as completely dismantled FLY.

Honestly, there isn't much more to say: this was a complete mismatch. It was also the second game in a row where Lucian-Milio opened up the game, creating an enormous early snowball and leaving the opposition with virtually no room for a comeback.

Will the bot lane duo be just as dominant at Worlds, or is it simply a product of the lower level of competition here? Who knows.

One thing is certain: LGD are a team to fear heading into the next rounds, while FlyQuest will need to quickly put this game behind them if they want to progress.

Though the match was messy at times, eventually came out comfortably on top. Still, the performance of jungler deserves praise, while put up a valiant fight and even threatened to mount a comeback during the early game. In the end, however, they were undone by the difference in individual skill.

If anything, this is a game Shopify will be able to review and learn from, unlike the previous two matches, which were little more than messy stomps.

Will finally get his international title?

are now 2-7 since the start of the LEC Playoffs. Questionable movement and decision-making, combined with an off day from , capped off a miserable Day One for the LEC participant and left Europe winless.

Overall, played a solid game. It wasn't particularly explosive, but it was clean and controlled, allowing the team to secure a comfortable 25-minute victory.

After watching these games, it's hard not to wonder whether Europe and North America will amount to much at this tournament beyond beating each other.

This match was, you guessed it, another stomp.

Still, it's difficult to blame too much for their performance, considering they came into the tournament with a substitute jungler in , who was recruited fresh off a fifth-place finish in the VCS, Vietnam's developmental league.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much positive for GAM to take away from the game beyond a solo kill from in the early-game mid lane.

, meanwhile, look poised to be a strong team heading into the next round, with jungler putting together a particularly strong performance on Qiyana.

The BROlivers have been rewarded.

Despite struggling through the early and mid game, did not fold. The Koreans held their ground until they reached the point where they became virtually unstoppable, eventually turning a 5,000-gold deficit against into a victory after breaking the game wide open.

It was a strong overall display of teamwork and patience, with BRO showing exactly why they cannot be counted out even when behind, and earning their first ever international win in the process.

Still, one has to wonder how much of the result was influenced by JDG fielding two substitutes in the jungle and midlane. Even so, they put together a solid performance that should be enough to deal with the Western teams at this tournament, although a deeper run may prove considerably more difficult.