Luis Guadalupe “DarkAngel” Castillo Gomez has won the FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves tournament at Esports World Cup 2026 after taking down Virtus.Pro's Kenta “mi2ha4” Ichihara 4-1 in the grand final. The NAVI player fought through a tough finals bracket to make it to the end, and triumphed in an electrifying finale that went heavily in his favour.
DarkAngel wins FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves Champion at Esports World Cup 2026
DarkAngel, who was the only player from last year's top eight to make it to this year's finals bracket, improved on his third-place finish by taking the top spot, but the Mexican player's journey was filled with top level opposition on his way.
The newly crowned champion came back from 3-0 down in his quarterfinal match against Elite Esports' Reynald Tacsuan to tie things up at 3-3, and then again at 4-4, before taking the final game. He then took a narrow 4-3 win over Japan's Naoki "Nemo" Nemoto to book his place in the final.
This win marks the first major FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves tournament win for DarkAngel, after narrowly missing out at DreamHack Birmingham earlier this year and his third place finish at EWC 2025. However, with the two players who outplaced him last year, Goichi "GO1" Kishida and Zeng "Xiao Hai" Zhuojun, out of the competition early, the stage was set for DarkAngel to make his run at the trophy.
The NAVI player was able to turn the competition on its head with an aggressive playstyle using Terry Bogard, and he proved to be simply unbeatable in the later stages of the competition, finally taking the last step at a major tournament and lifting a major trophy for the first time.
Runner-up mi2ha4, looked strong on his way to the grand final, but was unable to overcome DarkAngel, marking the second major tournament this year where he has fallen at the final hurdle, following EVO 2026. A small consolation for mi2ha4 is that he finally triumphed over fellow countryman Laggia, ending his unbeaten streak in the tournament, and taking the semi-final win over a player he had never been able to beat throughout their competitive history.
Prior to the final, Laggia and Nemo competed in the third-place match, with both Japanese players trading rounds and giving it their all. With an extra $20,000 between third and fourth place, along with a difference of 200 club championship points, there was still everything to play for. Nemo took the victory 5-2, and secured 500 Club Championship points for Saishunkan Sol Kumamoto.
While 2025 champion Goichi "GO1" Kishida was highly tipped to take the top spot, he withdrew from the tournament due to health issues. Then last year's runner-up Zeng "Xiao Hai" Zhuojun also failed to make it into the top 16, falling to Team Vitality's Konstantinos "K-TOP" Lamprou in a closely contested Mr. Karate mirror match in the first group stage, which left the finals bracket wide open for newcomers and unlikely underdogs.
The grand finals victory gives DarkAngel $250,000 of the $1 million prize pool, automatic qualification to the SNK World Championship 2026 finals, and 1,000 Club Championship points for NAVI, who head to the top end of the table. With first-place, DarkAngel has singlehandedly improved on NAVI's Club Championship points from last year, taking them up to 1,000 points compared to last year's 900, with plenty of competition to come. mi2ha4, meanwhile, earns 750 points for Virtus.Pro, putting his club in good standing for this year's competition.
