Virtus.pro ran away with the PUBG: Battlegrounds title at the Esports World Cup, landing the $660,000 first prize on Sunday in Paris.

Virtus.pro also secured 1,000 Esports World Club points, vaulting them into second in the overall standings at 1,950 behind only Natus Vincere’s 2,250. NaVi placed third in PUBG: Battlegrounds to gain 500 points and maintain their lead.

Virtus.pro concluded the Grand Finals stage with 159 total points, a comfortable 33 points ahead of The Vicious in second place. NaVi ended with 124.

Twenty-four teams began the PUBG tournament competing for shares of a $2.025 million prize pool.

The group stage lasted from Tuesday to Thursday and saw the teams divided into three groups of eight for a round robin. The top 16 teams overall moved on to the Grand Finals and the remaining eight were eliminated.

In the Grand Finals, teams played six matches per day from Friday to Sunday. Winning a match garnered a team the maximum 10 placement points, the second-place team received six, third place received five and so on down to the seventh and eighth teams receiving one point apiece. One point was also awarded for every kill.

Virtus.pro finished second in Games 1 and 2 and dominated Game 4, winning top spot and adding 14 points off kills. They repeated that in Game 6 before Friday was through, prevailing with 15 kills in their column.

An otherwise quiet Saturday for Virtus.pro ended with a bang as they won Game 12 (eight kills). At that point, they had a healthy advantage with 126 total points. That allowed them to cruise to victory on Sunday, collecting a third-place finish in Game 13 and second in Game 15 along the way.

Croatia’s Nino “NIXZYEE” Mikec of Virtus.pro won MVP honors, which came with a $25,000 bonus.

Prize money was distributed at the end of both the group stage and the Grand Finals.

PUBG: Battlegrounds at Esports World Cup 2026 standings (prize pool, EWC club points)

1. Virtus.pro — $660,000, 1,000 points

2. The Vicious — $305,000, 750

3. Natus Vincere — $213,000, 500

4. Team Falcons — $145,000, 300

5. Team Vitality — $106,000, 200

6. Geekay Esports — $78,000, 150

7. Gen.G Esports — $57,000, 100

8. Twisted Minds — $57,000, 50

9. Made in Thailand — $52,000, no points

10. T1 — $46,000, no points

11. 17 Gaming — $37,500, no points

12. FULL SENSE — $28,500, no points

13. Team Liquid — $31,500, no points

14. AGAL International — $26,000, no points

15. GAM Esports — $29,500, no points

16. Shadow Esports — $20,000, no points

17. JD Gaming — $17,000, no points

18. SOOPers — $16,000, no points

19. R8 Esports — $15,000, no points

20. Sharper Esports — $14,000, no points

21. Team Nemesis — $13,000, no points

22. TYLOO — $12,000, no points

23. Petrichor Road — $11,000, no points

24. Four Angry Men — $10,000, no points

–Field Level Media

For the second time in six weeks, part-timer driver Corey Heim shocked the racing world by taking the checkers in NASCAR’s top series, winning the 30th running of the prestigious Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday in Speedway, Ind.

The No. 67 23XI Racing driver left his boss Denny Hamlin in a restart with 34 laps, stayed in front of fellow Toyota driver Christopher Bell in the remainder and won for the second time in his first 15 career starts — a feat last done by racing great A.J. Foyt.

The 24-year-old Heim, who won at San Diego’s road course last month, beat Bell’s No. 20 by 0.287 seconds. Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe and Hamlin rounded out the top five.

In the second-ever In-Season Challenge finale, Ryan Blaney ran in the top 10 much of the day, but the Team Penske driver wrecked late and finished 26th, turning the $1 million payout over to 24th-place finisher Todd Gilliland in their head-to-head clash.

Pole winner Carson Hocevar led teammate Daniel Suarez in an all-Spire Motorsports front row to the green flag for the first of the scheduled 160 laps at auto racing’s most famous track.

After the field immediately lined up single file, Hocevar soon stretched his lead to nearly three seconds over Suarez in the first 10 circuits of Stage 1’s 50 laps around the iconic 2 1/2-mile facility.

With only six laps left in the segment, leader Kyle Larson, the 2024 Brickyard winner, blew a tire low in Turn 3, crashed out his No. 5 Chevrolet and became the first car to go to the garage.

Ty Gibbs, who officially made the Chase with his 12th-place run, won a one-lap shootout to close Stage 1, beating Heim, Michael McDowell, Hocevar and William Byron.

Chase Elliott became the second former Cup champ for Hendrick Motorsports to have problems when he smacked the wall and had a flat tire after he cut in front of and brushed against Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s No. 47.

Daniel Dye’s blown tire with four laps left in 50-lap Stage 2 set up a one-lap dash and ended the segment under caution with Ross Chastain leading Gilliland, Gibbs, Hamlin and Heim in collecting the top bonus points.

Leading Gilliland, Blaney saw his Challenge chances dashed on Lap 120 when John Hunter Nemechek spun Blaney’s No. 12 Ford on a restart.

–Field Level Media

Dominic Canzone and Randy Arozarena hit back-to-back homers in the seventh inning as the Seattle Mariners rallied to defeat the Texas Rangers 6-4 Sunday afternoon in an American League West showdown at Arlington, Texas.

Ezequiel Duran went deep for the Rangers, who had won the first two games in the four-game series.

The Mariners snapped a four-game skid and moved past Houston and into second place in the division, 1 1/2 games behind the Rangers.

Reliever Gabe Speier (2-2) pitched 1 1/3 hitless innings with three strikeouts to earn the victory and Andres Munoz struck out the side in the ninth for his 18th save of the season.

Trailing 3-1 with one out in the seventh, Colt Emerson and Cole Young singled to left field off Rangers reliever Tyler Alexander. Cole Winn (5-3) was summoned from the bullpen and got Julio Rodriguez to fly out to second baseman Nicky Lopez. Calzone launched a three-run shot 400 feet down the right-field line to give the Mariners a the lead. Arozarena went deep to right-center on the next pitch to make it 5-3.

The Rangers got a run back in the eighth as Duran hit a solo shot to left with one out off Eduard Bazardo.

Seattle scored again in the ninth as Rodriguez was hit by a Peyton Gray pitch with one out and Canzone lined a run-scoring double to right, giving him four RBIs.

The Rangers wasted no time in taking the lead. Joc Pederson led off the bottom of the first with a double to center field and Wyatt Langford lined a single to left, putting runners at the corners. Duran lifted a sacrifice fly to center to make it 1-0.

Seattle tied it in the third as Young tripled to left-center with two outs on a ball that went off the end of center fielder Evan Carter’s mitt after a lengthy run. Rodriguez followed with a broken-bat single that left fielder Langford trapped with a sliding attempt at the catch.

The Rangers regained the lead with a pair of runs in the fourth. With one out, Brandon Nimmo reached on an infield single on a comebacker off the left foot of Mariners starter Logan Gilbert. Following a walk to Jake Burger, Carter lined a run-scoring single to right with Burger taking third on the throw to the plate. Lopez hit a grounder up the middle on which second baseman Young made a diving stop, but his flip to second from his mitt to shortstop Emerson covering the bag was high, allowing all runners to advance safely and Burger to score to make it 3-1.

Neither starter factored into the decision.

Gilbert allowed three runs on five hits over 5 2/3 innings. The right-hander walked two and struck out four.

Rangers righty Jacob deGrom gave up one run on seven hits in five-plus innings. He didn’t walk a batter and fanned four.

–Field Level Media