EWC 2025 Week 5 recap: EA Sports FC 25, Warzone, Rainbow Six Siege X Final Champions 

Week 5 of the Esports World Cup 2025 featured three major events and a last chance qualifier. FC Pro World Championship crowned its first-ever two-time champion, veterans finally held their trophy high in Call of Duty: Warzone, and a young, unproven roster scored a perfect tournament run in Rainbow Six Siege X.

Tekken 8 had a last chance qualifier, where 412 participants were grinded down to the last four. Additionally, the Club Championship race is in full motion, with a new organisation taking over first place. 

After catching up with the previous week, below is a detailed recap of each title’s highlights and storylines, with a preview of upcoming events.

The prestigious FC Pro 25 World Championship continued at EWC, and featured 32 of the best players who were battle-hardened from their qualifiers. Last week, 512 players gathered in Riyadh for the Last Chance Qualifier, competing for the last five spots in the play-ins. Then, in Week 5, 48 players had another trial by fire in the play-ins for the final four slots for the World Championship main event. 

The group stage was brutal and saw many of the favourites sent home early. Returning FC Pro 2024 World Champion, Vejrgang (RBLZ Gaming), saw an early exit after losing the Upper Bracket Final and Lower Bracket Final in Group A. Manchester City’s and ePremier League 2025 winner, Bonanno, didn’t make it past his first match in Group C. 

Last year’s EWC champion, jafonso, namesake of Jafonso award for winning the event from the Last Chance Qualifier, fell off in the first Knockout round 7-2 against Obrun2002.

In the end, ManuBachoore (Team Liquid) defeated Brice (Team Vitality) in the Grand Final, 5-3, making him the first-ever two-time EA Sports FC world champion. The young Dutch player previously won his title at the FIFAe World Cup 2023.

The grand champion had to grind it out all the way from the play-ins. During the Knockout stage, he carved his path through FC Lorient’s LJR Peixoto, S8UL Esports’s Jonny, and delivered a 5-1 beatdown against New York Red Bulls’ GuiBarros. Meanwhile, first-time EWC attendee Brice fought through Cloud9’s nicolas99fc, Obrun2002, and had a close 5-4 game against the EA Sports Cup winner Levi de Weerd.

Making it to the final event was an achievement, but now both finalists wanted to win it all. Brice scored the first goal, but ManuBachoore went 4-2 up by halftime. Brice closed the gap to 4-3 and came close to equalising. It wasn’t until the 85th minute that ManuBachoore sealed the deal with his fifth goal and held out until the end. 

Both finalists represented leading esports clubs (Liquid and Vitality), so the final carried extra weight for their respective clubs. With ManuBachoore’s victory, Team Liquid overtook the long-dominant Team Falcons for first place in the overall standings. They also became the first organisation to win three tournaments at a single EWC event.

As a bonus for football fans, legends Ronaldo Nazário and Ricardo Kaká had a showmatch on stage. 

Call of Duty: Warzone began with a stellar performance from Team Falcons during the group stages. The defending EWC champions secured the top-place finish in the first stage of the tournament with 305 points. The other six teams to join them in the finals lobby are Virtus.pro, Twisted Minds, NOVO Esports, Team Vision, FaZe Clan, and CT Gaming. 

The remaining 14 teams had to go through eight Last Chance games, with the top seven teams advancing to the next phase. Gentle Mates and ROC Esports proved their worth by finishing with more than 160 points. Leviatán, 100 Thieves, EVOS, AG.AL, and XO Esports, joined them to complete the 14-team roster. Last year’s EWC runner-up, Fnatic, didn’t reach the point cutoff.

Call of Duty: Warzone uses the common match point limit format for battle royale games, but boasts no match limit for the finals. That means the battle doesn’t stop until a match point-eligible team decisively wins a game.

While the Falcons led the group stages, they couldn’t continue their dominance and found their only win in game 8. This allowed the other teams to land hot and fight for their match point. Virtus.pro started strong and kept their momentum up, but fizzled out towards the end, winning the first game and coming third in game 3. 

Team Vision was a surprise contender with their UK roster, winning games 2 and 3 back-to-back. 100 Thieves locked in and won games 6 and 7, despite their lacklustre start. Yet, the team that remained consistent throughout the finals was Twisted Mind. Before the final match, the team secured at least a top-four finish in all matches, except for two games.

After game 8, Twisted Minds and Virtus.pro were the first teams to earn match point eligibility. Then, after game 9, Team Falcons and 100 Thieves joined them as potential winners. This all came into contention in the 10th and final lobby of the day, where multiple match-point-eligible squads were cramping in the final circle.

At the 12-minute mark, Virtus.pro and Gentle Mates were eliminated from the map. Although not match point eligible, Team Vision eliminated Falcons near the edge of the gas, and scrapped with 100 Thieves on the low ground. While this happened, Twisted Minds secured an unbeatable high ground position, swooping in to clean up the survivors to win the tournament.

The Twisted Minds roster featured some familiar veterans in the Warzone scene. Notably, Aydan and zSmit fell just short in last year’s EWC Warzone, finishing third. Their IGL, Almond, came from Fnatic, the squad that finished second, and it was just the extra spark they needed to become a championship-winning team. ZSmith won Sony’s MVP award for his high-kill performance during the tournament.

Rainbow Six Siege X began with a brutal format: best-of-one matches in the group stage, followed by a best-of-three in the lower bracket. As a result, the group stages broke everyone’s expectations when the favourite teams were dropping like flies during the group stages. 

Team Falcons, who acquired the EWC 2024’s winning roster, Team BDS, lost their opening game against Team Secret and were defeated by Spacestation 0-2, swiftly eliminating them from the tournament. 

FaZe Clan also failed to secure their spot in the playoffs. The winners of Six Invitation 2025 lost their first match against DarkZero but bounced back 2-0 against FEARX. However, they were eliminated by G2 Esports 2-0 in their next series. Six Invitational 2024 winners, w7m esports, won their first match 7-1 against Spacestation, but then lost to Team Secret and were eliminated by FURIA.

With most of the old guard gone, it was time for the younger teams to take the title. Team Secret, which qualified as the third seed of the Europe MENA League 2025, was one of the first teams to exit during this year’s Six Invitational. But their roster change has been paying dividends since they went flawless in the EWC. 

From groups to playoffs, Team Secret didn’t drop one map. In the group stages, they took down Falcons and w7m esports. In the playoffs, they swept Weibo Gaming and Spacetation to earn their ticket to the grand finals.

Meanwhile, G2 Esports was thrown into the fire in their games. They won their opening match against Gen.G Esports, but lost 5-7 against Shopify Rebellion. However, they recovered in the lower bracket, eliminating FaZe Clan to qualify for the playoffs.

In the playoffs, G2 played a close 2-1 series against Ninjas in Pyjamas and faced off against RE:L0:AD 2025 winners, Furia. The Brazilian squad took the first game against G2 but couldn’t contest them in the following matches.

The stage has been set. Team Secret, the youngest roster in the tournament with a perfect tournament run, is against G2, a two-time Six Invitational-winning veteran organisation. Prior to this final, G2 has beaten Secret in two of their last meetings this year. However, when it mattered most, Team Secret completed its flawless run and won all three games.

The 3-0 scoreline in favour of Team Secret seems like a one-sided series, but each map was worth watching, especially the tight 7-8 win in Nighthaven Labs, the final map of the finals. Their support, Adrian, deservedly won Sony’s MVP award.

Throughout the tournament, Clubhouse was the most picked map overall, appearing 13 times. Followed by Chalet with nine picks, and Nighthaven Labs at eight. Consulate and Lair were the most banned maps of the tournament, with 24 bans. Bank and Skyscraper closely follow at 23 times.

Week 5 also hosted the Tekken 8 Last Chance Qualifier, an open bracket tournament to determine the final four players for the Tekken 8 World Championship main event. After 416 competitors battled for their slots, eight players moved on to the finals bracket.

The overall winner was Falcons’ Numan Ch, piloting Steve and Paul, sweeping Zero Tenacity’s Qudans (a former EVO Champion for Tekken Tag Tournament and a Tekken World Tour Champion), who used Heihachi and Devil Jin. 

The other contestants to qualify are Qasim Meer, an organisation-less player using Zafina and Azucena. And NAVI’s Kkokkoma, using Feng and Dragunov. These four will advance to join the pre-seeded players in the Tekken 8 main event bracket.

Week 6 of EWC 2025 (August 11–17) is the penultimate week of the event. Check out the events for the upcoming week:

Week 5 of EWC 2025 proved to be a pivotal turning point in the Club Championship saga. Coming into this week, after Week 4’s events, Team Falcons and Team Liquid sat as the clear frontrunners, being the only clubs above the 3,000 point mark.

Team Falcons, last year’s overall Club Champion, had maintained a slim lead through consistent performances in the first month. However, the results of Week 5 have upended that hierarchy. Team Liquid has now surged into first place in the standings, overtaking Falcons on the back of ManuBachoore’s FC Pro world title win.