RLCS Worlds 2026: How Team Falcons won it all

Team Falcons arrived at the 2026 RLCS World Championship as last year's runners-up and the reigning Esports World Cup champions. Yet they were only MENA's second seed, behind Twisted Minds. Kiileerrz, Rw9 and dralii had to begin in the Play-In, putting another stage between a proven title contender and the trophy.

Six days later, they swept Spacestation Gaming 4-0 in Fort Worth to become the first team from the Middle East and North Africa region to win the RLCS 3v3 world title.

They had won nine of ten series, losing only to Karmine Corp in groups. Throughout the elimination rounds that followed, Falcons kept finding the decisive goal in games that offered almost no separation, denying opponents the chance to turn close contests into longer series.

Falcons cleared the Play-In with 3-1 wins over FUT Esports and R8 Esports. FUT took the opening game before Falcons scored 14 goals across the next three. R8 made them work harder, forcing overtime in the fourth game, which Falcons won 1-0 to qualify. They had already played eight games before the teams seeded directly into groups began their campaigns.

The extra matches initially caused little trouble. Falcons beat Spacestation 3-2 and swept MIBR, leaving their meeting with Karmine Corp to decide first place in Group A. Winning the group would put them into the upper quarterfinals, with protection against an initial playoff defeat. Finishing second meant entering the lower bracket from its opening round.

Falcons won the first game against KC 4-2, then lost the next three. Two narrow defeats were followed by a 4-0 shutout, ending their chance of taking the group. They would now need five playoff series wins to lift the trophy, with elimination awaiting their next loss. KC could reach the final by winning twice.

The first lower-bracket match established how demanding that route could be. Falcons needed seven minutes and eight seconds of overtime to beat FURIA 2-1 in game one. The extra period alone lasted longer than a regulation game. Another overtime followed immediately, with Falcons again winning 2-1 to build a two-game lead without having found much breathing room.

FURIA cut the deficit with a 3-0 win in game three. Falcons responded with consecutive 1-0 victories, the second requiring another 1:42 of overtime. Keeping FURIA scoreless through those closing games prevented the series from reaching a sixth, when a single defeat would have forced a decider.

Across the entire match, Falcons scored six goals to FURIA's five. That was enough for a 4-1 series win because all four Falcons victories came by one goal. Their 59 shots against FURIA's 37 showed the volume of attacking work behind the result, but chances had been difficult to convert. Falcons had to keep that effort going through three sudden-death periods to advance.

Shopify Rebellion pushed the next match into overtime in four of its five games. The first three all needed an extra period, leaving Falcons 2-1 ahead before a 2-0 win finally gave them a more comfortable margin. They closed the series 33 seconds into game five's overtime, completing another 4-1 victory.

Dralii supplied seven of Falcons' 11 goals against Shopify. Rw9 contributed six assists, and Kiileerrz recorded 17 saves, the most of anyone in the series. Those contributions gave Falcons enough production at both ends to keep winning games even as Shopify repeatedly took them beyond regulation. Dralii's finishing carried particular weight in a match where three of Falcons' four wins depended on a single overtime goal.

The next morning brought NRG, the team that had beaten Falcons 4-1 in the 2025 world final. NRG's title defence now depended on surviving the lower quarterfinal, having lost to FUT in the upper bracket. Its roster of Atomic, BeastMode and Daniel was unchanged from that championship, giving Falcons a chance to eliminate the same trio that had denied them the trophy.

Every game finished with a one-goal margin. After splitting the first two, Falcons won 3-2 and 4-3 before taking the fifth 2-1, two minutes and 12 seconds into overtime. Kiileerrz scored six of their 11 goals. Dralii, who had led the attack against Shopify, finished with one goal but added five assists and a team-high 13 saves. Falcons could keep advancing without requiring the same player to provide most of the finishing in consecutive rounds.

Against FURIA, Shopify and NRG, eleven of Falcons' twelve game wins came by one goal. Seven came in overtime. Each series ended 4-1, and none reached a deciding game. Winning those narrow contests early and repeatedly let Falcons build leads that their opponents never recovered. Across all three matches, Falcons never faced an opponent on series point.

Karmine Corp returned in the semifinal as the only team to have beaten Falcons during the tournament. KC had also won its upper quarterfinal against Virtus.pro, arriving at the rematch undefeated. Falcons had spent three rounds earning another meeting with the opponent responsible for sending them into the lower bracket.

They won the opener 3-2 after three minutes of overtime, but KC answered with a 1-0 shutout and a 2-1 overtime victory. At 2-1 down, Falcons faced the possibility of falling a game from elimination. KC had already followed an opening defeat with three straight wins in their group meeting, giving Falcons a very recent example of how quickly this matchup could get away from them.

Game four reached overtime at 2-2. This time Falcons needed only three seconds to win it, bringing the series level instead of leaving KC one victory from the final. Falcons followed that with a win in game five, then closed the semifinal 6-0 on Neo Tokyo. Three consecutive victories had turned a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 series win.

The final game was an emphatic finish to a match that had repeatedly required overtime. Kiileerrz scored nine goals across the series, and Rw9 made 19 saves. Falcons had recovered against the one opponent that had already shown it could stop them, then finished the rematch without allowing KC a goal in its last chance to force game seven. They entered the final having beaten both the defending champion and their group winner that day.

Spacestation had completed its own lower-bracket run, beating Twisted Minds, Gentle Mates, Virtus.pro and FUT to reach the final. Falcons had already beaten SSG in groups, but their recent history stretched further back. The teams had met in August's Esports World Cup final, which Falcons also won 4-0.

The Worlds final repeated that series score through four consecutive one-goal wins. Falcons took the first two games 3-2 and 2-1, then won game three 3-2 after 1:34 of overtime. Another 2-1 result secured the championship. SSG kept the individual games close but never drew level in the series, leaving Falcons free of the deficit they had needed to overcome against KC.

Rw9 scored five of Falcons' ten goals in the final and inflicted 11 demolitions, more than Spacestation's entire team. He also contributed nine saves. Falcons continued to win through small margins, with Rw9 providing half their scoring as they finished the tournament on seven straight game victories.

Kiileerrz received the tournament MVP award, and Rw9 took Grand Finals MVP. For the twins, the championship completed the step they had missed against NRG a year earlier. Falcons had already won an RLCS Major and the Esports World Cup, but this victory brought the world title to a MENA team for the first time.

Dralii became a two-time world champion, adding to his 2024 title with Team BDS. That earlier run had included a semifinal victory over Falcons, ending the twins' hopes before BDS beat G2 in the final. 

His second championship came alongside them, with his finishing against Shopify and supporting work against NRG helping all three through the lower bracket. Falcons left Fort Worth with a world title for every player and the first world championship ever won by a MENA team.