EWC Week 7 recap: Counter-Strike, Street Fighter 6, CrossFire championslift final trophies

After seven weeks, we’ve come to the end of the Esports World Cup 2025 event. For the final stretch of the multi-esports event, Counter-Strike 2, Street Fighter 6, and CrossFire were the last tournaments to close out EWC. Additionally, NARAKA: BLADEPOINT had a special tournament during the week, but it didn’t count towards the final Club Championship race.

With legacies on the line and new stories written, Week 7 capped off an unforgettable summer of global competition. After catching up on last week’s results, it’s time to find out the final winners and how they affected the overall club standings.

Anyone who’s been closely following Counter-Strike esports at the start of the year will be baffled by all the unexpected results in the Esports World Cup. In a year that was dominated by Vitality, closely followed by Spirit, MOUZ, and MongolZ, it was a pleasant surprise that the Austin Major runner-up would be up against Aurora Gaming. 

First, the defending EWC champion, Natus Vincere, was eliminated in its opening game, 1-2, against 3DMAX. While NAVI hasn’t been in top form all year, it was still considered the team of 2024 and brought in more firepower with their new star, makazze. The rest of the team needed to keep up with their recruit, as he was able to show consistency through their series, something his teammates didn’t.

The biggest upset of the opening matches was Team Spirit, who had recently won BLAST Bounty Fall and IEM Cologne, falling to HEROIC, a team whose best recent achievements were scouting talent and selling them off to other organisations (including a rumoured transfer to Spirit after EWC). 

Spirit has always felt like they needed donk and sh1ro to pull off a masterclass to win, and even though they did score a 1.38 and 1.18 rating, respectively, HEROIC was able to pull off a close 2-1 win. 

MongolZ swept its opening match against GamerLegion 2-0 and then beat 3DMAX in a tough 2-1 series. The MongolZ had recently overcome a loss streak against Vitality last tournament, and now they had to muster up another strong showing to pull off a back-to-back win against them in the semi-finals. Techno performed above and beyond, scoring a 1.50 rating during its 2-1 series, earning a grand finals spot.

Meanwhile, Aurora Gaming edged FaZe Clan 2-1 in the opener, swept Heroic 2-0 right after, and then had to slug it out with Team Falcons in the semi-finals. Falcons was on a tear (swept G2 Esports and won against MOUZ the game before), and with the home crowd roaring behind them, they looked ready to snatch a place in the grand finals with its all-superstar roster.

However, there was one more surprise left in this tournament as Aurora Gaming swept them in their series. In the grand finals, it was national team against national team, five Mongolians and five Turkish players who were always present in these tier 1 events, but had never lifted a trophy in 2025.

Their first map went to overtime in Mirage. Aurora’s woxic pulled off incredible clutches, and XANTARES was racking up kills in the leaderboard, but like in its last match, Techno pulled off another lifegame to win the series 16-14. 

After that, MongolZ dominated the next two maps. Despite that, Aurora pulled off highlight-worthy plays in Dust 2, especially Wicadia. However, its final map in Nuke proved that MongolZ is a step above, closing out the game 13-4 and the series too, with Senzu pulling off a 2.59 rating (25-7 record).

The MongolZ’s win is a historic achievement in Counter-Strike, as it is the first Asian team to lift a tier-1 trophy, and a big source of pride to its country. Sodbayar “Techno4K” Munkhbold won his much-deserved first MVP award for his individual performance.

In Street Fighter 6, Chinese fighting game legend Zeng “Xiaohai” Zhuojun successfully defended his EWC title, earning back-to-back championships. During the first week of EWC, Xiaohai was in the grand finals in Fatal Fury, but was denied his first championship by GO1. While he missed his opportunity to become a multi-game champion in the event, he did join Ulsan from Tekken to defend their fighting game title.

All players who won the lower bracket in groups move on to their own group stage, where four players make it through to qualify for the playoffs: Kawano, matsu56, Higuchi, and EWC 2025 Fatal Fury winner, GO1.

Moving on to the top 16, recent EVO 2025 champion, MenaRD, swept his groups but immediately lost in the playoffs, unable to even score one win against EndingWalker. Xiahao’s road to the grand finals was smooth sailing, as he convincingly beat everyone to get there. First, he won 5-2 against Tormenshi, then 5-2 in his revenge match against GO1, and then 5-1 against AngryBird.

Blaz also met almost no resistance in his path, sweeping Itabashi Zangief 5-0, 5-1 against YHC-Mochi, and was challenged by Leshar in their 5-3 series. 

Xiaohai clinched the SF6 crown after an intensely close grand final against Blaz, barely winning 5-4. The final was an absolute thriller: in the first-to-five set, Blaz jumped to an early lead with his aggressive Ryu, beating Xiaohai’s M.Bison three times in a row. The MIXUP 2025’s winner, Nephew, alongside Blink Respawn 2025 runner-up, Momochi, also had an early exit.

The defending champion had to switch to his comfort character, Mai, and quickly returned the favour with three straight wins. Blaz had to swap to Ken, and although he lost when he first swapped, he won his fourth game, which meant he needed one more to close out the series. The last two games of the series will go down in fighting game history, as Xiaohai showed true resilience to win his last two games, with both sets going 2-1. Still, the Chilean had a breakout tournament, making the champion sweat while providing the audience with an entertaining series.

CrossFire, the hugely popular tactical shooter in Asia, made its EWC debut. Most of its teams and representatives were from China, but Brazil, Vietnam, and the Philippines also made major appearances. 

AG.AL’s path to the title was not without scares. In groups, they nearly fell into the lower bracket against Stallions, a Filipino national team. Then, in the quarterfinals of the playoffs against KINGZERO-eSports, they dropped the first map before reversing the series.

In the grand finals, BaiSha came out strong in Ankara, taking the opening map in a dominant 10-1. However, AG.AL fired back and won the next two maps, Black Widow and Eagle Eye, both with 10-4 scorelines. BaiSha refused to fold and narrowly won Compound to force a deciding game, but AG.AL held its nerve in the finale, closing it out with a decisive 10-3 win on the map Port. Doo captured the Sony MVP for a run of standout performances from start to finish.

A special NARAKA: BLADEPOINT event took place during Week 7 as part of the EWC Festival. The NARAKA: BLADEPOINT Mid-Season Championship 2025 featured both Solo and Trios competitions. 

Notably, NARAKA was included as a non-Club Championship title (meaning its results did not contribute points to the overall club standings). Nonetheless, it provided high-flying martial arts battle royale action to the festival and a refreshing break from the slower-paced games in the tournament. 

In the Solos tournament, Specific Reaction Gaming (SR) Spider won after a long-drawn but cinematic 1v1. Meanwhile, the Trios tournament saw teams of three clashing for a match point. By the final match, Specific Reaction, Attacking Soul Esports, and Baoda were in contention to win the game.

Ultimately, Team SR rose above all other squads to claim the Trios championship title and even won three games in the tournament to prove its dominance. 

Week 7 doubled as the curtain call for the EWC 2025 Club Championship, the season-long grind that stretched across 26 events in 25 esports. Going in, the race for the top spot was always about the Falcons, but surprisingly, it was as close as it could go.

Team Falcons entered Week 7 as the reigning Club Champions from 2024 and the hometown favourites to repeat. It was no surprise that they would take it, as they have strong competitors in every game, but its win proved the team had quantity over quality.

On paper, they were ahead; in reality, Liquid and Vitality were one good result away. After six weeks, the top three were split by only a few hundred points, which meant Week 7 could tilt the whole championship. As the last tournaments played out, Team Falcons needed to defend its lead while Liquid and Vitality aimed to overtake with final gold-medal finishes.

Ultimately, Team Falcons secured the 2025 Club Championship, announcing the title before the CS2 grand final even took place. It was a much closer race than the inaugural EWC in 2024. Last year, the Falcons won by a massive 3,120-point margin, whereas this year the gap was just 1,000 points over second place. While the Falcons’ lone championship came in Overwatch 2, the team piled up solid placements elsewhere. 

Liquid had the heavier haul: champions in Chess, MLBB, and EA Sports FC 25, plus second place in StarCraft II. Team Vitality won Mobile Legends Women’s Invitation and had a few close calls in Rennsport, EA Sports FC 25. Unfortunately, Vitality’s loss in Counter-Strike 2 prevented the French organisation from leapfrogging to second place. 

The fourth-placer, Twisted Minds, won two championships in battle royales, Warzone and PUBG: Battlegrounds. Virtus.pro, which finished fifth, interestingly had no wins but three second-place finishes.

These teams will take home the largest shares of the $27 million Club Championship prize pool (with $7 million for Falcons) and, more importantly, the bragging rights of being the top esports clubs of the year.

After seven weeks, 25 esports, 26 tournaments, and lots of activities for attendees, the Esports World Cup 2025 concluded another year as the largest multi-title esports festival in history. The event united payers, clubs, and fans across multiple events and served as a major milestone for many of the new and defending champions.

Every title added to the Club Championship narrative, and viewership records were broken, thanks to the event’s exposure. With the announcement of the upcoming Esports Nations Cup, we will see even more competition and moments of national pride.