Team Spirit has bagged its first win of the Esports World Cup 2026, taking down Luminosity with a 2-0 scoreline. Following a shocking upset, Spirit has secured a convincing win with a dominant first map followed by a frustrating second, thereby putting a warning for everyone else thinking they were out of it.
VETO
- Luminosity removed Mirage
- Spirit removed Inferno
- Luminosity picked Ancient
- Spirit picked Dust2
- Luminosity removed Anubis
- Spirit removed Cache
- Nuke was left over
Map 1: Ancient, Pick: Luminosity; Winner: Spirit
Starting on the defence on their opponent’s map, Spirit dominated, taking the lead before the Luminosity offence could even get going. Winning a few rounds ensured that the half became competitive, but Spirit’s lead was too much for Luminosity to surmount. Heading into the offence with a 9-3 lead, Spirit kicked off with a pistol win, went on to win all the way without dropping a single round, and closed the map 13-3.
Map 2: Dust2, Pick: Spirit; Winner: Spirit
Starting on the defence, Luminosity managed to get off to a better start, which saw the first half get levelled before Spirit took over in the next half. Despite the CIS side starting strong early on in the defence, Luminosity managed to push the game to OT, winning the final few rounds in the second half. With the game getting pushed to OT, Spirit managed to outlast Luminosity in an extremely frustrating series of overtime, which saw the map close with a 4-round streak, giving Spirit their first win of the tournament.
Having secured their first win, Spirit is likely to get a significant confidence boost that might help them make a deeper run despite being in poor form. Donk topping the charts is a sign of things to come, but he would need the support cast around him should Spirit contend for the title.
