RvPLegend Becomes the First Romanian FC Pro World Champion

Razvan "RvPLegend" Puiu beat Levy "levyfinn" Rieck in the grand final of the FC Pro World Championship 2026 on July 26 in Paris, becoming the first Romanian player to win EA Sports FC's biggest individual title. The Esports World Cup event paid Puiu $250,000 of a $1 million prize pool, a result made more striking by the route he took to even reach the knockout rounds: an 11th-place finish in the Swiss-format group stage that sent him through EA's newly introduced Last Chance Qualifier rather than directly into the bracket.

Puiu, who competes for HYPERSPIRIT under coach Andrés Torres, took an early lead in the final and built it to 6-2 behind three straight goals, before Rieck scored three of his own to close the gap to 6-5 as time ran out. The win completed a run in which three of Puiu's five knockout-stage victims had finished in the group phase's top four, earning him recognition as the tournament's giant killer before he ever reached the final itself.

Results reported by Esports World Cup, Paris, July 26, 2026.

A knockout run built on upsets

RvPLegend's path to the final ran through Umut Gültekin (6-3), Gustavo "GugaFerraz" Ferraz (7-3), Alihan Hadzhi (5-4) and Nassim "Nassada" Dahman (10-8), a sequence that included at least three players who had finished in the top four of the group stage he himself had only scraped into the knockouts from in 11th place. That combination, a modest group-stage finish followed by a string of wins over higher-seeded opponents, gave his run through the bracket a shape the tournament's own coverage specifically flagged as unusual even by the standards of a format built around upsets.

A final that got closer than the scoreline suggested

RvPLegend's early lead grew to 6-2 behind three unanswered goals, putting the final seemingly out of reach for Rieck with time running down. The German player then scored three straight of his own to pull the match to 6-5, a spell that turned what had looked like a comfortable closing stretch into a genuinely tense final few minutes before time ran out on Rieck's comeback attempt.

The route that almost didn't happen

EA's introduction of a Last Chance Qualifier for the 2026 World Championship gave players who missed direct knockout qualification through the Swiss-format group stage a second opportunity to reach the bracket, a route RvPLegend needed after finishing 11th in his own group. Without that new mechanism, a finish outside the group stage's direct qualification line would have ended his tournament before the knockout rounds even began, making the format change a prerequisite for the run that followed rather than just a footnote to it.

HYPERSPIRIT's title and a coach's promise kept

RvPLegend's coach, Andrés Torres, said after the final that he had promised to help the player and HYPERSPIRIT become world champions, a pledge that Sunday's result fulfilled in dramatic fashion. Puiu became visibly emotional after the win, embracing Torres before inviting him to join in lifting the trophy, a scene that underlined how closely the coach-player relationship had been tied to a title that, by both men's own account, had been a specific shared goal rather than a surprise outcome.

A tournament that eliminated several favorites early

The World Championship's early rounds removed several players many had expected to go deep, including Nicolas99FC and reigning two-time FC Pro Open champion Anders Vejrgang, both exiting earlier than the tournament's build-up had anticipated. Matias Bonanno finished third, giving the event a podium that mixed an established name with Puiu's unexpected run, while the overall shape of the bracket, several seeded favorites falling before the latter rounds, set up exactly the kind of result Puiu ultimately delivered.

The weight of a $1 million event

The FC Pro World Championship's $1 million prize pool, paying $250,000 to Puiu alone, placed the tournament among the largest individual prize purses EA Sports FC's competitive scene has offered, giving Sunday's final financial stakes to match its status as the format's marquee event. That scale meant Puiu's run from a last-chance qualification spot to the tournament's biggest payday carried a financial dimension on top of the historic first-for-Romania angle, with the prize money alone representing a career-altering sum for a player who had been outside the direct knockout qualification line only days earlier.

A graceful finish for both players

Puiu embraced Rieck after the final whistle in addition to his celebration with Torres, a gesture that capped a final both players had pushed to its closing seconds despite the eventual champion's control for most of the match. The sportsmanship on display after a result this consequential, a first-ever World Championship for both the player and his country, added a human note to a tournament whose headline storyline had already shifted from the pre-event favorites to a player who had needed a second qualification route just to compete for the trophy at all.

Rieck's own path to a first World Championship final

Levy "levyfinn" Rieck, who competes for RB Leipzig in EA Sports FC's club-affiliated circuit, had already won a German eFootball individual championship in 2025, beating a clubmate in that final after having lost the same competition's final the year before. That history, a player who had previously needed a second attempt to win a domestic individual title, gave his run to Sunday's World Championship final a parallel arc to Puiu's own, each finalist having needed persistence through an earlier disappointment before reaching the sport's biggest individual stage.

What the win means for Romania and HYPERSPIRIT

RvPLegend's title gives Romania its first FC Pro World Championship and HYPERSPIRIT a marquee individual result to point to, with Torres' specific promise to deliver a championship now fulfilled within what both men treated as a meaningful shared project rather than a one-off run of good form. The win also reframes Puiu's own competitive history: a player who entered the tournament outside the group stage's direct qualification line left it as the best player in the world for that particular season, a turnaround compressed into a single event rather than built up gradually.

A trophy carrying new meaning

EA announced on July 3, 2026, that the World Championship's winner's trophy would be renamed the Diogo Jota FC Pro World Championship Trophy, honoring the late footballer's enthusiasm for the EA Sports FC series with the support of his family. Puiu's name became the first attached to the renamed trophy, a detail that gave his win a layer of significance beyond the competitive result itself, arriving at the first World Championship held under the new name.

A win that puts Romania on the FC Pro map

Romania had no prior history of producing a World Championship finalist, let alone a champion, making Puiu's win a genuine first for the country's competitive EA Sports FC scene rather than a continuation of existing success. The result gives Romanian players and organizations a concrete reference point to point toward when discussing the country's place in the format, something that simply didn't exist in quite the same way before Sunday's final.

A result that changes how the format is viewed

Puiu's title adds to a growing body of evidence that EA Sports FC's competitive scene rewards knockout-stage form over group-stage seeding more reliably than many other esports formats, with an 11th-place qualifier beating multiple top-four finishers to take the game's biggest individual prize. That pattern, visible across other FC Pro events in recent seasons as well, gives players who stumble through qualification a real incentive to keep competing rather than treating a poor group stage as a tournament-ending result, since the knockout rounds themselves have repeatedly proven to reward a completely different kind of form.

What comes next

The FC Pro calendar continues toward its next World Championship cycle, with RvPLegend carrying the champion's status and the validation of his Last Chance Qualifier run into a season where every other competitor will now treat him as the player to beat rather than an outsider making a surprise run. Rieck's runner-up finish, and the group of seeded favorites eliminated earlier than expected, leave the rest of the FC Pro circuit with plenty to address before the format's biggest individual title comes back up for contention.

The .esports registry publishes Esports Observer, so the whole scene can read its news for free.