EWC 2026: Team Falcons Crowned Rocket League World Champion

On Sunday, August 16, 2026, on the stage at Porte de Versailles, Team Falcons lifted the Rocket League trophy at the Esports World Cup against Spacestation Gaming (SSG), in a final that opened tight before turning into a statement win. Final score: 4-0. No money-map thriller on the last game, but an opening stretch that kept the outcome in doubt for a while.

On paper, Falcons arrived as one of the most-hyped rosters in the tournament. On the pitch, the team walked away with $400,000, 1,000 Club Championship points, and an individual feat that will stick in the game's history books: Samy "dralii" Hajji claimed his 3rd straight EWC title, with a 3rd different club each time. Here's how that week in Paris wrapped up for Rocket League.

The title: Falcons sweep SSG 4-0

The Rocket League tournament at EWC 2026 ran in Paris through August 16, with 16 teams competing for a $1,000,000 total prize pool. The grand final pitted Team Falcons, led by twin brothers Yazid "Kiileerrz" and Saleh "Rw9" Bakhashwin alongside Samy "dralii" Hajji, against Spacestation Gaming, who had fought their way to Sunday hoping to pull off the upset.

The final scoreline reads 4-0, but the story behind it is anything but a walkover. Game 1 opens tight, SSG hangs on and forces an equalizer right at the end of regulation, sending Falcons into overtime to seal the win — a game that could easily have swung the other way, and instead gave Falcons the momentum they needed. In Game 2, Falcons take an early 1-0 lead, SSG levels with about a minute left on the clock, putting the Saudi side back under real pressure — before Falcons answer immediately with two goals back-to-back to close it out 3-1 and pull away in the series. The rest of the final confirms the trend: Falcons never let SSG back in again, sealing the sweep at 4-0.

Grand final MVP: Saleh "Rw9" Bakhashwin, named winner of the Sony MVP Award. A performance that earned him a $25,000 bonus, stacked on top of his share of the title prize money.

The podium and the money

The Rocket League prize pool totaled $1,000,000, split across the 16 teams on the bracket. Here's how the top of the table breaks down:

• 1st: Team Falcons, $400,000 plus 1,000 Club Championship points.
• 2nd: Spacestation Gaming, $180,000, runner-up.
• 3rd: Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP), $100,000, after beating Karmine Corp in the bronze match.
• 4th: Karmine Corp.

The scene: dralii makes history, Karmine Corp goes home empty-handed

This title puts Samy "dralii" Hajji in a category of his own. Crowned champion for the first time in 2024 with Team BDS, then in 2025 with Karmine Corp — where he was also named tournament MVP — he now closes out 2026 with a third straight EWC title with a third different club: Team Falcons. No other player on the Rocket League scene has pulled off that run in the competition's history.

The rest of the bracket tells a very different story: Karmine Corp's. The French org played in front of its home crowd in Paris, chasing a first-ever back-to-back title on this tournament. The road there was anything but smooth: a 0-3 loss to Spacestation Gaming right out of the group stage, a scrap to survive against R8 Esports, then a tense quarterfinal win over Vitality, the other French team on the bracket. Karmine Corp ultimately fell to NiP in the bronze match and left Paris in 4th place, without the trophy the Porte de Versailles crowd had hoped to see raised on home soil.

Highlights worth rewatching

Three moments to catch up on if you missed the final live:

1. The Game 1 overtime. SSG forces an equalizer right at the end of regulation and pushes Falcons into overtime, in the tensest money-time of the afternoon.
2. The Game 2 comeback answer. Falcons lead 1-0, SSG ties with a minute left, and Falcons respond with two goals back-to-back to close it out 3-1 and take control of the series.
3. dralii's historic title run. A third straight EWC title with a third different club — an individual feat no other Rocket League player had achieved on this stage before him.

How to clip this Rocket League final without catching a DMCA

Let's be blunt: you don't repost the official broadcast of the final on TikTok, Shorts or Reels. The production belongs to the EWC and its broadcasters, their copyright detection runs nonstop on an event this size, and it doesn't cut anyone slack. What you clip is you.

Your reaction when SSG ties Game 2 with a minute left and you feel the overtime coming. Your breakdown of Falcons' money-time, with your own read as a player on why the team never panicked despite SSG's comeback attempt. Your pre-final prediction, put side by side with the actual result, if you had Falcons pegged as favorites. That's the principle we break down in clip esports highlights without getting flagged: your watch-party, your take, your reaction, never the raw broadcast.

Rocket League, the game behind the Esports World Cup 2026 final, in its official key art. Source: Psyonix / Epic Games

Rocket League is unusually generous for vertical clips, too: goals read in a second, a buzzer-beater or an improbable aerial lands even for viewers who don't know the game, and the pace of a match fits the short-form format perfectly. For the rest of the Paris calendar, our full guide to the event and our picks for the best games to clip in 2026 map out the windows worth staying up for.

And for the nights where you run a multi-hour watch-party with zero appetite for reopening the VOD the next day, that's exactly where StreamClipping takes over: multi-modal detection of your best reactions inside the VOD, native 9:16 export, animated subtitles, and AutoPilot scheduling everything to TikTok, Shorts and Reels while you sleep. The free plan gets you 15 minutes of video a month for life with no card, plus a 7-day Elite trial included at signup (60 minutes of video to process, still no card) to test it on a real grand final night.

Wrapping up

Team Falcons is the Rocket League world champion of the Esports World Cup 2026, crowned on August 16 in Paris after a final won 4-0 over Spacestation Gaming, opened by a Game 1 overtime and confirmed by a one-sided Game 2 closing stretch. $400,000 on the table, 1,000 Club Championship points, and a 3rd straight EWC title for Samy "dralii" Hajji, with a 3rd different club. SSG finishes 2nd with $180,000, NiP 3rd with $100,000 after knocking out Karmine Corp, 4th despite its home crowd, in the bronze match.

The EWC keeps running in Paris through August 23 with the rest of the schedule. If this final made you want to clip what's left, connect a watch-party VOD to StreamClipping and let the AI pull your best reactions while you sleep.

Also worth reading

• EWC 2026 in Paris: How to Clip the Esports World Cup
• Clip esports highlights without getting flagged
• The best games to clip in 2026

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