WCCE 2026 · The Plate
The 16 engines that never reached the Round of 32 played their own knockout — Round of 16 through a Final and 3rd-place match — to settle who the strongest non-qualifier really was.
| Bracket | Engine 1 | Engine 2 | Score | W–L–D | Pct | Delta | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left | Renegade (Norway) | Laser (Haiti) | 11,0/12 | 10–0–2 | 92% | +424 | Renegade |
| Left | Smallbrain (Bosnia and Herzegovina) | Tucano (Uzbekistan) | 4,5/12 | 0–3–9 | 38% | -85 | Tucano |
| Left | Ethereal (DR Congo) | Arcanum (Ghana) | 5,5/12 | 3–4–5 | 46% | -28 | Arcanum |
| Left | Xiphos (Curaçao) | Pawn (Czechia) | 3,5/12 | 0–5–7 | 29% | -156 | Pawn |
| Right | Midnight (Jordan) | Wasp (South Africa) | 6,5/12 | 3–2–7 | 54% | +28 | Midnight |
| Right | Akimbo (Sweden) | Heimdall (Iraq) | 4,5/12 | 1–4–7 | 38% | -85 | Heimdall |
| Right | Schneckbert (Cabo Verde) | Turbulence (Paraguay) | 2,0/12 | 0–8–4 | 17% | -275 | Turbulence |
| Right | Weiss (New Zealand) | Houdini (Qatar) | 4,0/12 | 1–5–6 | 33% | -123 | Houdini |
Renegade's 92%/+424 was the standout, but Schneckbert's 17%/-275 collapse against Turbulence was the round's other headline — the worst single-match result of the entire Plate bracket.
| Bracket | Engine 1 | Engine 2 | Score | W–L–D | Pct | Delta | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left | Renegade (Norway) | Tucano (Uzbekistan) | 10,5/12 | 9–0–3 | 88% | +346 | Renegade |
| Left | Arcanum (Ghana) | Pawn (Czechia) | 3,5/12 | 0–5–7 | 29% | -156 | Pawn |
| Right | Midnight (Jordan) | Heimdall (Iraq) | 3,0/12 | 0–6–6 | 25% | -191 | Heimdall |
| Right | Turbulence (Paraguay) | Houdini (Qatar) | 7,0/12 | 5–3–4 | 58% | +56 | Turbulence |
| Rank | Engine | Country | Eliminated | Elo Rank (of 16) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–8 | Tucano | Uzbekistan | QF | #7 |
| 5–8 | Midnight | Jordan | QF | #9 |
| 5–8 | Houdini | Qatar | QF | #12 |
| 5–8 | Arcanum | Ghana | QF | #13 |
| 9–16 | Wasp | South Africa | R16 | #6 |
| 9–16 | Akimbo | Sweden | R16 | #4 |
| 9–16 | Schneckbert | Cabo Verde | R16 | #8 |
| 9–16 | Ethereal | DR Congo | R16 | #10 |
| 9–16 | Smallbrain | Bosnia and Herzegovina | R16 | #11 |
| 9–16 | Xiphos | Curaçao | R16 | #14 |
| 9–16 | Weiss | New Zealand | R16 | #15 |
| 9–16 | Laser | Haiti | R16 | #16 |
Renegade's title is fully deserved — the #1 Elo engine among the 16 non-qualifiers went 4-for-4 through the bracket without losing a single game (0 losses in 48 games total). The podium is close to Elo order too: Heimdall (#2 Elo) and Turbulence (#3 Elo) took the other two medals, just with Turbulence finishing above Heimdall despite the lower rating — a genuine result, decided in their head-to-head Semi-Final.
The one real outlier: Akimbo, the #4-rated engine of the 16, was eliminated in the Round of 16 — the earliest exit of anyone in the Elo top-6, losing to Heimdall (#2). Wasp (#6 Elo) also went out in the first round. Meanwhile Arcanum, ranked just #13 of 16 by Elo, fought through to the Quarter-Final stage. Small bracket, same story as the main draw: the best engine usually wins, but who you meet first still matters.