The last of the three FC Pro Open Cups has been played—and now we know who will be participating in the play-ins for the FC 26 World Cup. Levy Finn Rieck narrowly missed out on a ticket. But there is still hope.
There are not many qualifying opportunities left. Tickets for the FC Pro World Championship are now only available through the national leagues or the play-ins. Players were able to earn places in the latter through the FC Pro Open Cups. Points for an overall ranking are collected in three tournaments, both in the Swiss rounds and in the play-offs on the following day. The best players advance to the next round.
A week ago, the quarterfinalists of the FC Pro 26 Open secured their tickets to the World Championship, including Freiburg’s Nassim Dahman and Umut Gültekin. For the RBLZ Gaming pro, this is his first World Championship appearance since his triumph in 2022.
Despite qualifying, Dahman performed particularly well in the Europe East region, leading the table by a clear margin with a total of 1,085 points. In the January Cup, ‘Nassada’ reached the semi-finals, but narrowly lost to Francesco Allocca on penalties. The Dortmund player, on the other hand, ultimately secured first place after defeating another German and VBL colleague, Umut Gültekin (11:7), in the final.
Despite disappointment: Rieck can still hope
For Jonas Wirth of S8UL, the Cup was over after the second round (Razvan Puiu – 11:18) – but without any consequences for the overall ranking. With 670 points, he finished in 6th place and thus qualified for the play-ins. Levy Finn Rieck, on the other hand, narrowly missed out. The Leipzig player was just five points short. Berkay Demirci also narrowly failed to qualify, falling 35 points short.
However, there is still hope for both of them: if some of the play-in participants qualify for the World Cup via their national leagues, there will be replacements. In Demirci’s case, however, the situation is much more complex than for Rieck. It would be enough for the Leipzig player if one player reached this milestone.
For ‘BerkayLion’, on the other hand, it would have to be three. One way would be for Yuval Blizovsky to make it via the Virtual Bundesliga, Samuele Prestigiacomo, who is still ahead of Demirci in the rankings, via the eSerie A, and Wirth via the eLigue 1.
