The 2026 RLCS season's first Major lands on North American soil. Sixteen teams from seven regions converge on the Agganis Arena in Boston, February 19-22, for the first three-day audience event of the year. Qualification has run from November through this past weekend; the field is now locked.
The qualified field
EU's qualification race got more competitive than expected — the Kickoff Weekend bonus slot meant one extra EU team made it through. The seedings:
EU
- Karmine Corp (Kickoff Winner, auto-qualified)
- Gentle Mates
- Team Vitality
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Manchester City Esports
NA
- Shopify Rebellion
- NRG (defending World Champions)
- Spacestation Gaming
- FUT Esports
Rest of world
- Twisted Minds (MENA #1)
- Geekay Esports (MENA #2)
- FURIA (SAM #1)
- MIBR (SAM #2)
- TSM (APAC #1)
- Five Fears (APAC #2)
- OCE #1 — TBD via LCQ
The contenders
Karmine Corp
Pre-qualified via Copenhagen and arriving with the kind of momentum that usually translates into a Grand Final run. The 2026 version of this roster is arguably the cleanest macro-game team in the world.
Gentle Mates
EU's #2 seed. Consistently a top-4 finisher across 2025. We don't know what's going to take them over the top into a Major win — but Boston is a venue structure that suits their style.
Team Vitality
The third leg of the French stool. Took Karmine Corp to seven games at Copenhagen. Vitality have all the pieces and nobody to blame for not winning yet.
Shopify Rebellion
NA's new top seed. Made the Copenhagen Grand Final. Firstkiller is having the best individual stretch of any NA player since Atomic's 2025 run.
NRG
Defending Worlds champions. Underwhelming Kickoff. They need a strong Boston to shut down the "regression" conversation.
Twisted Minds
MENA's #1, and the new home of Evan "M0nkey M00n" Rogez. With Team Falcons going through some structural changes, Twisted Minds are the new MENA frontrunners. Watching them in their first Major together.
What we're watching
- Does Karmine Corp confirm Kickoff wasn't a one-off?
- Does Shopify Rebellion's NA threat hold up against EU's top tier?
- Does M0nkey M00n's debut on Twisted Minds produce immediate results?
- Does NRG snap back into top form?
- Does the Worlds points race produce any seeding-defining upsets?
We'll be on the ground for daily recaps Thursday through Sunday. Full Major recap up Monday February 23.