Vici Gaming and Rune Eaters eliminated favorites, results of the second day of the Survival stage of EWC
The second day of the Survival bracket at the Esports World Cup 2026 has come to an end. Aurora, 1win Team, LGD Gaming and Team Liquid left the tournament, while Rune Eaters, Vici Gaming, Team Spirit and BetBoom Team advanced to the playoff stage.
The most unpredictable series of the day — Aurora versus Rune Eaters. The underdogs, who were predicted to be eliminated after the match against Virtus.pro just yesterday, unexpectedly shut down the favorites and knocked them out of the tournament. The first map was a shock: despite a weaker draft and a 5k gold deficit at the 10th minute, Rune Eaters made a comeback, seized the initiative, and confidently took the map. On the second map, they simply destroyed the bottom lane: Aik on his signature Lich started the game with a 6/1 score, while Ws on Axe died far too often, giving away much experience and gold to the opponents. After a series of unsuccessful engagements by Aurora the game was completely broken for them — Rune Eaters advanced to the playoffs.
In the series Team Liquid — Team Spirit, the «Dragons» confidently took the first map. The second was even, but Team Liquid’s draft proved stronger, and they forced a third map. The decisive map was one-sided — Team Spirit, thanks to their outdraft, methodically closed out the map until the very fall of Team Liquid’s throne. Special mention goes to miCKe’s build on Alchemist: Assault Cuirass and Shiva’s Guard, while the team simply lacked the damage to kill heroes.
In the series 1win Team — Vici Gaming, the first map went to 1win Team: Pure delivered a powerful performance on Templar Assassin with Aghanim’s Scepter, split the map, and caught Puck thanks to the silence. On the second map, 1win Team clearly underperformed and gave it away. The third map started calmly, but after several unsuccessful initiations by 33 on Axe, Vici Gaming seized the initiative, closed out the series thanks to their draft, and knocked 1win Team out of the tournament. MVP of the map was Vici Gaming’s fourth position — XinQ on Zeus: he dealt 85k damage, held third place in gold income, and had two Divine Rapiers.
BetBoom Team left LGD Gaming no chance. gpk~ dominated the first map on his signature Lina with a score of 18/0/12, and on the second map, thanks to strong lanes and comfortable heroes, BetBoom Team calmly closed the series and knocked LGD Gaming out of the tournament.
Esports World Cup 2026 takes place from July 7 to 19 in online format in Paris with a prize pool of 2 million dollars. Follow all the latest news in our Telegram channel.