As I write these words, it has been just one day since the conclusion of the Clash Royale League (CRL) 2026 World Finals in Shanghai.
I don't understand why everyone is talking about Pharaoh's championship and Chinese players' dreams shattering in the Top 8, as if the CRL 2026 battlefield was destined to be unchanged from previous years for both participants and global audiences.
If we only look at the final match results, I indeed cannot refute that.
After all, Mohamed Light, nicknamed "Pharaoh" from Egypt, still dominates the CRL 2026 arena, achieving an unprecedented fourth title and three-peat with an almost leisurely demeanor. If this trend continues, future Clash Royale tournaments will likely continue the legendary story named Pharaoh.
But this is somewhat hindsight bias.
Standing here now that the competition has ended, we can naturally discuss the inevitability of Pharaoh's victory based on his years of demonstrated superior card reading ability and consistent emotional stability. However, for veteran players in the community who witnessed the matches up close, the question of who would take the crown remained full of suspense and uncertainty until the very end of the final game.
Take the semifinals, for example. When Pharaoh faced Pedro, he once took a two-game lead in the BO5 format, gaining a significant advantage. If he had played steadily in the next three games and secured another win with his reliable skill, he would have advanced directly to the finals. If that had happened, few would have questioned Pharaoh's inevitable championship.
But the final result was that Pedro successfully made a comeback, winning 3-2 after being down 0-2.
Pedro even pulled off the "Four Generations of Bridge Princesses," a spectacle rare in the CRL professional scene, in the final game, defeating the invincible Pharaoh in the hearts of veteran players with an almost crushing momentum, advancing to the final battlefield first.
There was nothing to be done; the Delivery and six-elixir Rocket placed in his own control zone were helpless against the three-elixir Sniper Princess. Pharaoh's expected win rate dropped directly from 80% to 66% due to this loss.
Dramatically, when Pharaoh, having fallen into the losers' bracket, defeated CAL Sub 3-1 to return to face Pedro, and was once again dragged into the fifth game of the BO5, this time he used the Goblin Barrel Princess deck that had previously pushed him to the brink to turn the tables. He won by a large margin, with Pedro's two Princess Towers having approximately 1500 less HP than his own (full HP being 3052).
Ultimately, in the post-event discussions, he once again "unsurprisingly" became the CRL 2026 World Champion.
Another media colleague who attended the event with me was a much more senior CRL veteran.
He compared Pharaoh's championship run to the Awakening mechanic in Clash Royale, likening it to "running through the Awakening rounds in the losers' bracket," and called it the highest peak and longest river in CRL history. Yet, even after elevating Pharaoh to such heights, he remained anxious, muttering worries to me about Pharaoh's glory fading and CRL potentially changing, right up until the final Goblin Barrel sealed the advantage before the countdown ended.
And this unexpected worry perhaps stems from the unique charm of Clash Royale.
From the basic gameplay perspective alone, in a 3+2 minute match, due to the short duration and fast pace, players must focus entirely on every move their opponent makes. Tracking cards, hiding cards, saving counters; positioning, baiting, tactical lane switching, or adapting to situations. Every accidental tower chip can directly influence the match outcome. Even if you accumulate HP and elixir advantages early on, a single misjudgment during the double or triple elixir overtime phase can lead to a comeback loss.
In matches between world-class players, the tension intensifies further. Since professional players generally possess extremely proficient defensive and predictive counter-play skills, attackers often struggle to break through lines and win via tower count advantage in the first three minutes. Therefore, matches going the full five minutes and being decided by the remaining HP of the Princess Towers during the overtime phase is actually more common on the professional stage.
With this mindset, if either side takes extra spell damage or gets chipped by sneak cards like Miner or Goblin Barrel, their strategy shifts from stable defense to a more vulnerable offense. At this point, recklessly using spells to regain a temporary HP lead will likely result in an elixir deficit of three, four, or even six elixir, trapping them in the opponent's rhythm. But not attacking means certain death, so they often have no choice.
In addition, the CRL finals' BO5 format has a special deck restriction: each player must use five completely different decks, and each card can only be used once throughout the entire BO5. This not only tests players' proficiency with different archetypes but also means that once powerful universal cards are used early, they cannot be used in subsequent matches—and the opponent knows this too.
Thus, by making smart card allocations and deck synergies based on real-time match information, what was once a fixed meta with clear强弱 (strengths and weaknesses) transforms into a game of "Tian Ji's Horse Racing" filled with random challenges. Both competitors and their analysts must play a mind game akin to rock-paper-scissors, predicting each other's predictions. If the skill gap between players isn't massive, having a deck that naturally counters the opponent's grants an inherent advantage. This is precisely why we saw the iconic moment of "Four Generations of Bridge Princesses" in the finals.
Stories like this "horse racing" narrative are undoubtedly a highlight of CRL that fans must savor. The excitement of the strategic博弈 (gambling/matchup) starts from the first moment of the BO5 and continues non-stop until the very last second of the result calculation. In comparison, who wins or loses seems less important. On-site, whenever either side pulls off an impressive play, the audience cheers for them indiscriminately. For instance, a spectator next to me, despite being a die-hard Pharaoh fan, still cheered loudly when Pedro made a comeback from 0-2 to win 3-2. One could say that at CRL, I witnessed the genuine spirit of "Friendship First, Competition Second."
Thus, we can naturally steer the topic back to the second point of my initial confusion—Chinese players' dreams shattered in the Top 8.
And describing it as "dreams shattered" seems inappropriate to me; I would rather consider it a dream fulfilled. After all, if I were Flying Edelweiss (Hermit), I would wake up laughing from dreaming about playing a match where I deployed a Golem at the back of my arena at the start and directly overwhelmed Mugi, formerly known as the "Strongest on Earth" and a three-time world champion, winning with a three-crown victory.
First, let me introduce the Golem to readers who are less familiar with it. At eight elixir, it is in a sense like a top-tier comedian who brings entertainment value just by appearing. Since the elixir cap in Clash Royale is only ten, playing the Golem means transforming into the strongest spear and abandoning all defense. Therefore, to play Golem, you must essentially be "blind." When the opponent switches lanes to avoid the Golem, you, having already incurred a high sunk cost, must pretend not to see and aim to take down the tower in one push.
Precisely because of the Golem's high risk and instability, professional players generally do not favor it in competitive play. Facing low-elixir cycle decks, Golem players can easily be dragged to defeat. If the opponent skillfully counters a Golem with low-cost cards, our side can basically concede the match.
Yet, the player community, including professional players, holds an inexplicable affection for the Golem. It's somewhat like Hero decks in Yu-Gi-Oh!; even though you must sacrifice half your HP to activate "A Hero Arrives," often just baiting out a single Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, and subsequently getting punished every time you play a new era's premium search card, duelists still love Heroes and tirelessly enjoy the wave after wave of alternate art cards and buffs. Playing "A Hero Arrives" itself is the last stubborn stand of an old-era hero like Kaiba.
The same logic applies in Clash Royale. In other matches, audiences only cheer when a player makes a "god-like play," but with the Golem, deploying it at the back of the arena at 2:48 remaining is enough to make the whole crowd scream. This simplified, gamble-like behavior is irresistible to every audience member seeking excitement and thrills.
So, where is the Awakened Golem?
After witnessing Pharaoh's fierce battle to claim the championship, only then can you truly appreciate the desperate courage displayed by Flying Edelweiss's Golem player. At the Shanghai Litan Cultural Center, the Chinese players, as hosts, proved themselves to the tournament and the audience in the most powerful way.
Although the last two Chinese players did not achieve good results, and other media colleagues lamented that Chinese names were still missing from the third-day finals venue, victory and defeat have never been the entirety of CRL. The gaming passion ignited by the excellent performances of the two Chinese players and the enthusiastic atmosphere will not be extinguished by a single setback. On the contrary, this passion will be pushed to new heights in the future, nurturing more outstanding Chinese players.
And CRL 2026 is just the beginning.
In April 2026, the "Shanghai Measures to Support the Development of the Game and Esports Industry" explicitly proposed to "continuously introduce top global tournaments," and Clash Royale took the lead. This year marks not only the first year of CRL's return to mainland China but also the first time its World Finals are held in Shanghai.
Based on this level of importance, players' enthusiasm to move upward and become stronger found solid support. Listening to the cheers rising and falling at the venue, and observing the small groups discussing the event on the way out, I clearly felt the changes in local esports over the past decade.
About ten years ago, when I first started playing Clash Royale, I could only watch foreign esports broadcasts with somewhat unprofessional commentary on old-style satellite dishes and bulky CRT TVs when I returned to my hometown for holidays. The channel mainly featured PC game tournaments like DOTA 2, League of Legends, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which I barely understood. Only the occasional mobile game broadcasts in the afternoons gave me a rare sense of belonging, and Clash Royale was one of them.
At that time, I never imagined that ten years later, those once unreachable tournaments would be held in places I could easily reach without a passport. I certainly didn't expect to have the opportunity to attend in person—a sentiment shared by some players at the venue. "Taking special leave to come here was worth it," said a passerby I brushed past after the event, speaking in the rain.
Thus, even though the final outcome of CRL 2026 was largely predicted before the tournament began, I still find it hard to view it as a match with "no variables." On stage, Pharaoh rarely let his health drop, and Chinese players fought hard with impressive plays, showcasing their true selves; off stage, players who witnessed the international event up close were eager to try, shouting with a light in their eyes that I couldn't see but could feel.
No regrets for this trip, the future looks promising.
As for the future, who will break Pharaoh's undefeated MYTH - Steam Edition, or whether it might be someone sitting in the audience today, I cannot say. But I believe that even if Chinese players remain absent from the finals for years to come, the pure love for Clash Royale among Chinese players will not be easily disappointed.
Love itself may hold no magic, but relying on the love of thousands, the Chinese story of CRL is destined to continue.