League of Legends EWC 2026 group stage recap: G2 crash out as T1, Gen.G and HLE advance

Hannan Mundia Published 18/07/2026

The League of Legends EWC group stage just concluded, and here’s a complete summary of everything that transpired in the two extremely eventful days.

The League of Legends Esports World Cup is already making waves for all of the right reasons. While it isn’t nearly as long as the game’s esports fans are usually used to seeing, it’s still packed with awesome matches in which the best teams play each other.

The group stage of the tournament just concluded, and it went about as well as most would have expected. Most of the top teams comfortably qualified for the playoffs, while some favorites got eliminated earlier than they should have.

How did the League of Legends 2026 EWC bracket stage go?

The League of Legends 2026 Esports World Cup bracket stage saw giants such as T1 and HLE progress, while some favorites weren’t able to move forward.

The first group saw G2 Esports comfortably defeat Furia while AG.AL took down Dplus with ease. The two winners battled each other, while AG.AL found another victory, qualifying for the playoffs. The loser bracket had Furia lose to Dplus. Dplus then took down G2 Esports in an upset match to knock the LEC powerhouse from this tournament.

Gen.G in a 2026 merch shoot – Image credit: Gen.G

Gen.G was easily the favorite to qualify in the second group, and it didn’t disappoint. The team took down Karmine Corp before winning against Sentinels. Team Secret lost to Sentinels, but gave Karmine Corp a tough fight before going down. In turn, Karmine Corp beat Sentinels in the lower bracket final to qualify for the playoffs.

BLG and T1 faced off in the third group’s upper bracket final after beating MKOI and GAM Esports, respectively. BLG comfortably won, but T1 beat GAM a second time in the lower bracket final to also qualify for the playoffs.

The final group saw HLE cruise through the matches against MIBR.LOS and JD Gaming, as expected. JD Gaming displayed surprising skill to win against MIBR.LOS without giving a single game in the best-of-three, sending the team to the next stage.

Most already assumed that the four Korean teams would perform well in this stage. BLG is also a powerhouse team, so the team’s presence in the playoffs isn’t surprising. However, Karmine Corp caused a major upset by progressing this far, especially since G2 Esports was the only team performing decently this year so far.

Feature image credit: HLE

Hannan Mundia

About Hannan Mundia

Hannan Mundia is a lifelong gamer. Don’t believe us? Just ask him. But don’t ask how many hours he’s spent playing. He’s been gaming since the age of three, and much of his live revolves around video games and the video game industry. Whether it’s a classic Legend of Zelda game from Nintendo, the newest Bethesda RPG, or something else entirely, you can bet that Hannan is ready and willing to play it.

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