EWC 2025 Week 4 recap: Chess, PUBG Mobile, MLBB, and Overwatch 2 prevail

The Esports World Cup 2025 has concluded its fourth week, delivering conclusions across four titles. Chess has made its debut as an esport, PUBG Mobile’s winners went all 18 games, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang saw a redemption from a team who fell short last EWC, and Overwatch 2 saw a team win all the way from the LCQ.

Additionally, this week also featured more than 500 players who tried to qualify for the EA Sports FC 25 Last Chance Qualifier, their last chance at glory. Let’s catch up on what happened in Week 4 and look forward to the upcoming events in the following week.

The inaugural Chess event at EWC 2025 is a milestone in integrating this centuries-old game into the digital age. Instead of playing face-to-face over a board, competitors played using computers with heart rate monitors in front of a live audience as if it were StarCraft. With a Rapid time control of 10 minutes with no increment, the time scramble caused these cool-headed GMs to blunder more often or even lose from winning positions due to time constraints.

Before the main event, Chess debuted at EWC the week before for the last chance qualifiers. Notable players like Hans Niemann, Alexander Grischuk, and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa cracked under the time pressure.

This leaves Indian Nihal Sarin (S8UL Esports), Uzbekistani Javokhir Sindarov (Team Vitality), US Levon Aronian (REJECT), and Dutch Anish Giri (Team Secret) to push through the next stage.

World #1 Magnus Carlsen, representing Team Liquid, won the first-ever EWC chess title against Alireza Firouzja for Team Falcons, adding another trophy to his long list of achievements. The grand finals match format deviated from the rest of the tournament, featuring two best-of-three sets (two four-game sets and a tiebreaker if needed). Carslen didn’t need it as he wrapped it up in two, winning both sets with a 3-1 record (five wins, two draws, and one loss).

The matchup between Alireza Firouzja and Magnus Carlsen has been long-awaited, with Magnus previously saying he wouldn’t defend his World Chess Championship title if it weren’t against him in the past. However, their set proves that Firouzja needs more time to compete with the goat. Carlsen’s experience manifested in their difference in time and how he quickly found brilliant moves, like a Knight fork in game three that caused his opponent to resign immediately.

Carlsen’s semi-final match against his longtime rival and other Falcon representative, Hikaru Nakamura, was the real test for Magnus during EWC. Their best-of-six ended with a tie 3-3, leading to a final Armageddon match.

In EWC, Armageddon is a sudden-death tiebreaker where players secretly bid lower time to play with the black set of pieces. The loser of the bid plays white with the standard 10 minutes on their clock, while the player with black pieces plays on the time they’ve bid. But for this ruleset, when the game ends in a draw, the player with the black pieces wins. Hikaru won the black pieces with 6:12 minutes on his clock.

Hikaru opens up with an aggressive King’s Indian Defence and was on the attacking until he blunders with bishop to a4, trapping his own rook and allowing Magnus to end the game shortly after. Hikaru would go on to win the bronze medal against Gen. G’s Arjun Erigaisi in the third-place decider.

While there are Chess tournaments with shorter time controls like the FIDE Blitz and Rapid World Chess Championship, the environment at EWC lets the players cut loose, interacting with the crowd like a spectacle esport. With Chess’s successful debut at an esport event, it raises potential questions like whether EWC will become one of the prestigious tournaments in Chess and how far esports organisers are willing to push this historic game into the digital age.

The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid-Season Cup (MSC) started in Week 3 with the Wildcard stage, where Virtus.pro clawed out to qualify for the group stages against eight other aspirants.

The group stage was separated into two brackets. Mythic SEAL, Team Liquid PH, ONIC, and  EWC 2024 champions SRG.OG qualified for the playoffs. In Group B, Team Spirit, RRQ Hoshi, Aurora Türkiye, and ONIC Philippines join them in the next stage.

Week 4 was a tale of redemption for Team Liquid PH, who previously fell against the grand finalists, Falcons AP.Bren in the semi-finals last year. Team Liquid started strong with a clean sweep over Aurora Türkiye, then went 3-1 against Indonesian ONIC in the semi-finals. 

Meanwhile, the EWC defending champions, SRG.OG, had a much tougher time in their lead-up to the finals. The Malaysian roster had two close 3-2 series against RRQ Hoshi in the quarterfinals, and then against ONIC Philippines in the semifinals. Despite that, SRG.OG held strong and brute-forced their way to the grand finals.

Selangor Red Giants OG decisively took the first game in their series, but failed to capture another victory in the following four games. Team Liquid PH showed their dominance in the last two games of the series, ending game four in a 10-minute stomp and holding them hostage in their base for five minutes in the final game. EXP laner Sanford earned the event’s Sony MVP for his impressive performance.

From a broader perspective, this MSC result continues the Philippines’ dominance in MLBB, a storyline familiar to fans of the sport. Team Liquid PH’s roster, featuring the first two-time M World Champion KarlTzy, kept jungle objectives secured to snowball their lead. With their EWC trophy adding to their MPL Philippines and M-World Championship, Team Liquid PH has solidified itself as one of the best rosters in the game.

As for heroes, Granger was the most picked character at the event, appearing in 65 games. Zhuxin, Moskov, and Lancelot were present in more than 50 games. Wanwan is the most contested hero with a 98% contest rate, as well as the most banned out character (97 times). Yi Sun-shin, Kalea, and Zhuxin were also hotly contested heroes with above 90% pick or ban rate.

PUBG Mobile World Cup 2025 was another event that started in Week 3, weeding out the competition with the group stages. Over 18 matches spread evenly across three days, the top right teams advance to the grand finals: Alter Ego Ares, 4thrives Esports, DRX, Weibo Gaming, Alpha Gaming, Team Secret, ThunderTalk Gaming, and IDA Esports. 

The bottom 16 teams move on to the survival stage, where the bottom eight from this stage are eliminated from the tournament. Sixteen teams moved on to the grand finals, where the contestants went through another gruelling 18 matches to find out the eventual winners of their chicken dinners. EWC 2024’s winners, Brazil’s Alpha Esports, failed to move on to the next stage, bowing out as the fourth-lowest team with only 45 points.

Similar to the other battle royale games like Apex Legends, teams would first have to gain enough points to become match point eligible to secure the championship on their next win, or win through cumulative points after all games were played out. By game 15, Burmese Yangon Galacticos was eligible to take home the final victory, but they failed to secure a traditional win in the last few games.

Alpha Gaming was the next team who gain match point eligibility after game 16, then immediately bombs out with a 15th place in game 17 and 7th in the final game. Weibo Gaming was the last team to reach match point eligibility, but lost their chance in the final circles as Horaa Esports eliminated them, then proceeded to win the final match.

As soon as Weibo Gaming were eliminated, Yangon Galacticos emerged as the champions, claiming their first international trophy with 157 points. YG barely made it to the grand finals in the first place, qualifying at 70 points for the last slot during the survival stage, one point ahead of Influence Rage. YG won four chicken dinners during the grand finals, specifically game 2, 6, 8, and 10.

Weibo Gaming and Alpha Gaming finished the grand finals with 142 and 141 points, respectively. The fourth place, DRX, trailed by 24 points behind. Alpha Gaming’s star player, Dok, earned MVP thanks to his high elimination count of 31 during the grand finals.

Additionally, there was a one-match showmatch that awarded $10,000 to the winner and another for the team with the most eliminations. Nepalese Horaa Esports won the showmatch and finished with 13 eliminations, tying kills with the runner-up, Fire Flux Esports. 

The Overwatch Champions Series 2025 Midseason Championship (OWCS MSC) at EWC 2025 culminated in a clean sweep for Team Falcons, who fought through LCQ during the second week. 

Team Falcons qualified for the playoffs from Group A, defeating AG.AL 2-0 then Weibo Gaming in a close 3-2 series. From the same group, Virtus.pro qualified from the lower bracket. The other grand finalist and fellow Saudi Arabian team, Al Qadsiah, defeated Team CC and Geekay Esports in Group C, where the latter qualified through the lower bracket.

In Group B, OWCS 2025 Champions Clash winner, Crazy Raccoon, qualified alongside Team Liquid. Finally, in Group C, T1 and Twisted Minds complete the final eight for the playoffs.

During the playoffs, Team Falcons defeated Geekay Esports 3-2, recovering from an early 1-2 series loss. They’d recover their form and 3-1 OWCS Korea Stage 2 runner-up, T1. Meanwhile, Al Qadsiah would sweep Virtus.pro and go 3-2 against Twisted Minds, who just eliminated EWC 2024’s champions, Crazy Raccoon. Twisted Minds would secure the bronze medal for their 3-1 victory against T1 in the third-place decider.

In front of a loud hometown crowd, Team Falcons delivered an impressive four-match sweep over Al Qadsiah in the grand finals. 

In Game 1, Someone’s Ramattra was key to Lijang Tower, holding the line and denying LBBD7’s Pharah from taking free rein of the skies. Both teams brought a mirrored match-up in the second map, Esperança, and Al Qadsiah were close to pushing the objective to the final destination. But Proper’s Venture went to work to win a crucial teamfight, allowing them to push the objective from end to end during overtime.

Game 3 took the finalists to Flashpoint in New Junk City. Al Qadsiah easily took the first point, but failed to secure additional ones, losing the map 3-1. Mer1t’s Sojourn, backed up by Fielder’s Kiriko, took heavily contested long sightlines, which enabled them to snipe their opponents.

By the time the teams moved to the final map, Circuit Royal, Falcons were firmly in control, shutting down Al Qadsiah’s offense, completely blocking them out of the first point. Al Qadsiah weren’t able to return the favor, and Falcons took a leisurely stroll to win the tournament.

Since Falcon’s win by advancing from the Last Chance Qualifier, this means they also receive the Jafonso Award. This award is inspired by João “Jafonso” Vasconcelos, who won EA SPORTS FC EWC 2025 after qualifying from LCQ. DPS Proper also received Sony’s MVP award for his performance.

The EA Sports FC 25 Last Chance Qualifier in Week 4 was a do-or-die gauntlet for aspiring FIFA/FC pros, and it did not disappoint in scale. Over 512 players descended on Riyadh for this LCQ, which offered the final five slots into the FC Pro World Championship Play-Ins. 

With most of the 32 World Championship finalists already decided via leagues and other qualifiers, this massive open bracket at EWC 2025 was the last chance for anyone not yet qualified to keep their championship dreams alive. The tournament format was brutal: 512 players in a four-staged double elimination bracket over just three days. 

Notably, the LCQ field included several notable participants such as former FIFA World Champion Msdossary, FUT Champions Cup winner Ollelito, UK legend Stokes, and many more. 

After the dust had settled, five relatively under-the-radar players from five different countries emerged to make it to the World Championship Play-Ins. Dudu (Brazil) and Er_Caccia98 (Italy) qualified through the upper bracket. Joining them through the lower bracket were Abel (Russia) and HassanWright (Morocco). 

The final Play-In berth came down to a fifth-place decider between Saudi Arabia’s Toobi_10 and Portugal’s GD8. With the local crowd firmly behind him, Toobi_10 triumphed 5-1 in that final match.

With Week 4 in the books, the Esports World Cup rolls right into Week 5. Four major titles will take centre stage from August 5 to 11 in Riyadh:

Tune in to ESI next week for our EWC Week 5 Recap for another round of events and storylines.

As EWC 2025 reaches its halfway point for its seven-week event, it’s a good time to take a quick look at the Club Championship leaderboard. 

Team Falcons is the overall leader with 3,500 points boosted by their win in Overwatch 2. The organisation is built to win as they have strong representatives throughout all the events. 

Team Liquid surged into second place with 3,200 points after racking up consecutive wins (Chess and MLBB). These two clubs have now pulled ahead of the pack, with Team Vitality trailing 1,000 points behind at 2,400. Followed by Gen.G with 2,100 and AG.AL with 1,950.