Tundra Esports are the champions of ESL One Birmingham 2026

Grand final Sunday was here at ESL One Birmingham 2026, as the champions of the event were crowned after a best-of-five grand finals between Tundra Esports and Team Yandex.

Three teams remained on the final day of ESL One Birmingham 2026. However, by the end of the day, only one would stand victorious as they are crowned as the champions. Team Yandex and Xtreme Gaming went into the opening lower bracket finals, with Tundra Esports holding steady in the grand finals, awaiting their challenger.

While XG were known for their comeback prowess, with a magnificent lower bracket run, they met their match in Yandex. Hungry for a rematch with Tundra, after being knocked down into the lower bracket by the PGL Wallachia Season 7 winners, Yandex sent XG home in third place, and set themselves up for revenge in the grand finals.

Ari brings the trophy home with Tundra at ESL One Birmingham 2026

A replay of the upper bracket final would make for an amazing grand final at ESL One Birmingham 2026. Both Yandex and Tundra had been dominant in recent times, with Tundra being the winners of DreamLeague Season 28 and Yandex winning the recent PGL Wallachia Season 7. But only one team would be crowned as the champions in Birmingham. Yandex came into the series on a high, and Game 1 proved that, with a beatdown of Tundra.

The second game of the series looked to be going the same way, with Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov’s Weaver and Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov’s Sand King dominating. But, as Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko’s Monkey King was ready, Tundra began to fight back. With a tied series, these two teams were not about to slow down.

Game 3’s early game became the hometown hero show, as Matthew “Ari” Walker’s Tusk absolutely dominate, concentrating his attention towards mainly CHIRA_JUNIOR’s Ember Spirit in the middle lane. This early brilliance converted into a controlled game from Tundra and a win to take them to championship point. With the wind in their sails, Tundra were sailing smoothly through what would become the final game of the series.

Even with the Tiny returning from watson, there was nothing that Yandex could do to slow down the tempo of their opponents. With no hope in sight, Yandex threw in the towel before 30-minutes had even passed, knowing that there was no way to fight Tundra.

With an emphatic 3-1 victory, Tundra Esports become the champions of ESL One Birmingham 2026, with Yandex finishing in a respectable second place, and XG closing out the podium. Tundra claims a massive 8000 ESL Pro Tour Points for their victory, which almost definitely secures the team a direct invite to the Esports World Cup 2026.