JiJieHao have taken the last available slot at the Esports World Cup main event, beating HOTU 2-1 in the closing series of the Counter-Strike open qualifier. HLTV reported the match finished 7-13 on Mirage, 13-9 on Cache and 13-11 on Dust2, and that the result completes a 32-team main-event field.
The win puts JiJieHao alongside 100 Thieves, BIG and K27, the three other sides to qualify through the open bracket. HLTV called Dionis "sinnopsyy" Budeci’s roster the biggest shock of the qualifier: they escaped the group stage only after a three-map decider against Sangal, then won three consecutive 2-1 playoff series against DENDELE, Phantom and HOTU, a team ranked 28 places above them in the VRS. Bebu "Bibu" Aadil posted a 1.41 rating on the deciding map.
100 Thieves return to a tier-one LAN
100 Thieves were the first team through, beating 1win 2-0 on Ancient (16-14) and Anubis (13-6). They came out of a bracket that also held BC.Game and Liquid, eliminating Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev’s side along the way while 1win knocked out Liquid in the other round-of-16 match. Jack "Gizmy" von Spreckelsen finished the qualifier with a 1.44 rating, and Alex "poiii" Nyholm Sundgren posted a 1.65-rated CT half that ended 9-3 on Anubis.
HLTV noted the run is 100 Thieves’ first tier-one LAN appearance since the organization returned to Counter-Strike at the start of the year, and that it lifts them to No. 33 in the VRS.
BIG and K27 fill the remaining slots
BIG qualified second, beating Sashi 2-1 in a series that produced the only map they dropped across the entire event. Gleb "gr1ks" Gazin ended the qualifier with a 1.58 rating and was the best player on the server in six of the eleven maps he played. Sashi had eliminated Virtus.pro earlier in the bracket and sit inside the VRS top 50 after winning CCT 2026 Europe Series 5.
K27 took the third slot past fnatic in a series that went to three maps. Both teams fielded recent additions — Timur "clax" Sabirov for K27, Volodymyr "mazay" Iorhachov and Artem "cairne" Mushynskyi for fnatic — but fnatic’s established players all finished below a 1.00 rating. Aleksey "xeedo" Mikulich and Daniil "qw1nk1" Kabilov each posted 90 ADR on the decider as K27 booked only their second appearance at a big event, following a last-place finish at PGL Astana.
The Esports World Cup double-elimination group stage begins on August 12.
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