FURIA Defeat aspas' MIBR to Win 2026 VCT Americas Kickoff

Ganesh Jadhav

After Nongshim RedForce and BBL secured the first seeds of Pacific and EMEA respectively, it was FURIA and MIBR faced off for the first seed of Americas at Masters Santiago 2026 and the Kickoff title.

Hard Fought Qualification

While many expected the “superteam” MIBR to dominate the region, FURIA contesting them in the Upper Bracket Finals of 2026 VCT Americas Kickoff has caught the community off-guard. Nonetheless the newly constructed FURIA gave the “aspas dream squad” a run for their money.

The series began on MIBR’s map choice of Bind, where despite a closely contested first half, MIBR’s attack dismantled their opponents. Despite the momentum in their opponent’s favor, FURIA dominated their map pick, Abyss, returning MIBR’s favor and equalising the series.

Haven began with a back and forth, with the first half concluding in a tie. FURIA ran away with the map during the last three rounds, winning the map 13-11. This secured the series-point before their map choice of Breeze.

The aspas-zekken duo dominated FURIA, with Zekken constantly finding openings to put the FURIA attack squad in uncomfortable positions, and aspas holding off the incoming onslaught to flawlessly secure the first half. This pushed the series to a decider.

Mazino’s clutches and MIBR’s coordinated push helped them secure six rounds in a row, but FURIA came back, equalising the half with four rounds of their own. The momentum helped secure another four unanswered rounds.

MIBR answered back with two rounds but FURIA won a half-buy to secure the final three rounds and win the series 3-2. With the win, FURIA, who went win-less for an entire year, have now secured a flawless run to secure the Kickoff title and Americas’ first seed. Additionally, they did it by defeating aspas’ demons.

MIBR into the Sharks!

MIBR now drop into the middle bracket where they play G2 Esports in another Bo5. But before that, the defending champions NRG will play 100 Thieves in an elimination game. Watch the games live on the Americas YouTube/Twitch.

Over at Pacific, Paper Rex, the people’s champions, will take on Detonation FocusMe in an elimination match in two hours.

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Featured Image Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

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