FPT Polytechnic have won Vietnam’s Arena of Glory for the first time, beating BOOM Esports 4-2 in the Winter 2026 Grand Final at My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi on 7 November. The team is backed by a Vietnamese college and only entered Garena’s top Arena of Valor league, known locally as Đấu Trường Danh Vọng, in 2025. Captain Vịt was named Finals MVP, and his side became the first champions other than Team Flash or Saigon Phantom since Winter 2017, according to Liquipedia. The final opened Liên Quân 10Fest, Garena’s celebration of ten years of the game in Vietnam, where it is called Liên Quân Mobile.
BOOM Esports, the Indonesian organisation playing its debut season in the league, had the better start to the series. Tama was named MVP on Dolia as BOOM won the opening game, before FPT Polytechnic levelled through Sleepy on Liliana. BOOM went 2-1 up when their dragon lane carry ĐứcTiệp starred on Violet, but FPT Polytechnic then won three games in a row to take the title. Vịt, whose real name is Lê Văn Việt, plays in the Dark Slayer lane and receives 50 million dong as Finals MVP. More than 28,000 people were watching on Garena’s main YouTube stream alone during the closing games.
The venue was almost as big a story as the result. According to Znews, it was the first esports tournament ever held at My Dinh, the home of Vietnam’s national football team. Garena had expected around 40,000 people across the festival’s two days, but Znews put Saturday’s crowd at about 25,000 in a stadium that holds roughly 40,000. The mobile esports analyst hesketh2, who works on Liquipedia’s Asia-Pacific mobile coverage but posts in a personal capacity, called it the first attempt to stage a mobile game in an open stadium outside China. He added that the crowd had passed the halfway mark, although rows of empty seats were visible in the central stands.
Why Liên Quân 10Fest only filled half of My Dinh
Moving the final into a national stadium was a deliberate statement from Garena. My Dinh mainly hosts international football matches and major concerts, and the official 10Fest ticket page sold separate seats for each day through Cticket.vn. Liên Quân players with a level 15 account could buy tickets from 20 September, six days before sales opened to the public. Fans who checked in on both days could also claim a limited skin chest, which gave players a reason to attend the concert as well as the final.
The bracket did not help the attendance, however. Team Flash, one of the most popular teams in the country, had already been knocked out in October after losing 4-3 to BOX Gaming in the lower bracket. That left only three teams still alive on the final day. Saigon Phantom, often described as the most decorated team in the league’s history, then lost the lower bracket final 4-2 to BOOM in the afternoon. Several Vietnamese fans replying to hesketh2 said many Saigon Phantom supporters left after that defeat, before the evening grand final began.
Heavy rain before the main event also dampened the atmosphere outside the stadium, according to Znews. Taiwan staged its own anniversary final a week earlier, when the GCS title decider moved into the Taipei Dome on 31 October. ANK beat Relove DCG there to become the first team to win a title inside the venue, according to 4Gamers. The Taipei Dome is a covered arena, however, which is why My Dinh was the first open stadium of the two.
How FPT Polytechnic and BOOM Esports reached the My Dinh final
FPT Polytechnic’s rise has been almost as quick as BOOM’s. The team was formed as FPT Polytechnic HCMC after winning promotion into the league for Spring 2025, but it was relegated at the end of that season. It returned by taking over the Ho Chi Minh City slot, and Garena named it one of the league’s partner teams for Spring 2026, according to Liquipedia. This season’s squad was built around Vịt, who joined in January, with jungler ThànhDuy, mid laner Sleepy, roamer ThếKhang and dragon lane player Sindhu under head coach Han. The team finished the group stage second with a 14-2 record, then beat Team Flash 4-1 and Saigon Phantom 4-3 to reach the final through the upper bracket.
BOOM were founded in Indonesia in 2016 and have fielded teams in Dota 2 and Valorant, among other games. They joined the Arena of Glory for Winter 2026 alongside fellow Indonesian organisation Rex Regum Qeon, and the two newcomers helped expand the league from eight teams to nine. Their roster is entirely Vietnamese, however, and two of its players had represented FPT Polytechnic earlier this year. Mid laner Failure, who led all players with seven MVP awards in the playoffs, left FPT Polytechnic in August, while ĐứcTiệp had played for the team until April. Jungler and captain Anne and support Tama both arrived from BOX Gaming.
Their debut season did not start smoothly, as BOOM lost their first league match 3-1 to Saigon Phantom. They recovered to finish third in the group stage with a 9-7 record, and signed former Super Nova player VinhHoang on 25 September to strengthen the Dark Slayer lane. Saigon Phantom beat them again 4-2 in the first round of the playoffs on 23 October. BOOM then won three straight elimination matches, against GAM 4-1, BOX Gaming 4-3 and Saigon Phantom 4-2, before falling short against the team two of their players had left this year.
FPT Polytechnic’s title is worth 1 billion Vietnamese dong, the largest share of the playoff prize money, according to Garena’s season announcement. BOOM receive 500 million dong as runners-up, while Saigon Phantom take 200 million for third place. Including bounties and awards, Liquipedia lists FPT Polytechnic’s total season earnings at 1.86 billion dong, or roughly $73,000. The season paid bounties of 50 million dong for every first-leg match and 80 million dong for every second-leg match.
FPT Polytechnic and BOOM head to AIC 2026 in December
Both finalists now move on to the Arena of Valor International Championship, which runs from 3 to 27 December. Saigon Phantom and BOX Gaming have also qualified from Vietnam, while GAM Esports and Team Flash go into the wildcard stage, according to Liquipedia. For the first time, AIC 2026 will be split between two countries, with matches in Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok. Sixteen teams will compete from Vietnam’s Arena of Glory, Thailand’s RoV Pro League, Taiwan’s GCS and the wildcard stage, with ANK and Relove DCG among the Taiwanese teams already confirmed.
BOOM also have plans beyond Arena of Valor. On 6 November, the organisation said on X that it would announce a new Valorant roster within days, ahead of the VCT Pacific 2027 season. Arena of Valor will also stay on the medal table at the SEA Games 2027 in Malaysia, although only as a men’s team event. Garena’s busy weekend continues elsewhere too, with the Free Fire World Series Global Finals running at the same time.
Liên Quân 10Fest continues on 8 November, when more than 30 artists, including brand ambassador Bích Phương, SOOBIN and Da LAB, perform at the same stadium. Organisers have promised a 36-metre stage with 2,000 square metres of LED screens and a parade of 300 performers dressed as the game’s heroes. Garena streams every Arena of Glory match on its Liên Quân Mobile esports YouTube channel, and posts results on the official Cao Thủ Liên Quân Facebook page.
