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Meet the New Teams!
World Team Carcassonne Online Championship
2026
Presenting Team Ecuador
This year marks the whirlwind appearance of the Ecuadorian National Carcassonne Team. Rather than emerging from an established Carcassonne scene, the team was assembled through local networks of abstract and competitive board gamers. Captain Juanky (short for Juan Carlos—JuankyEND on BGA) first connected with members of the international Carcassonne community—manarori (Mex), ComplixVandh (Mex) and Senglar (Cat)—through MOCHALUNT, an online abstract games tournament. While preparing for a local Carcassonne tournament in late 2025, Juanky reached out to manarori for advice on improving his Carcassonne skills and was pointed toward the now-famous Carcassonne.cat strategy guide. From there, things escalated quickly. An invitation to the Copa América de Carcassonne—on literally the final day of registration one month ago—led to the rapid assembly of an Ecuadorian squad of 12 (!) players. This momentum, and hearing about WTCOC in the international Carcassonne WhatsApp group, led to the team’s inevitable registration for WTCOC 2026.
Five of the players were already connected through competitions in abstract strategy games (including hive, mancala variants and titles from the GIPF Project). Others came from the broader Ecuadorian board game community where interests range from heavy eurogames like Dune: Imperium and The White Castle to social and party games. Juanky admitted his guilty pleasure of having a huge collection of King of Tokyo versions and expansions. There’s also some serious gaming pedigree outside of Carcassonne: JorgEn309 and Danita91 have Champion and Vice-Champion national titles in Catan! Geographically, the players all hail from the Ecuadorian highlands, famous for its picturesque snow-capped volcanos including Chimborazo and Cotopaxi. Maybe there are future teammates waiting to be discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon, coastal lowlands, or even the Galapagos Islands!
For some teammates, Carcassonne was an early gateway game, and only recently rediscovered as a deeply strategic two-player mind sport. One player, Gary-san, recalls learning it with family on Board Game Arena during the pandemic—without even reading the rules at first, simply figuring it out through trial and error. The Ecuadorian Carcassonne scene is still developing. The game is recognized as a modern classic, and there have been occasional tournaments organized by board game stores. The team’s preparation has been pragmatic and collaborative: using the Copa América as a proving ground, studying strategy materials, solving tactical puzzles, and discussing key decisions and positions together. So the foundation is there—built on players who already understand how to study, compete, and improve.
The Ecuadorian team has personality. Meet their grandly titled Galapagos tortoise mascot: Carcápago—Gentleman of the city, Protector of roads, Emissary of the abbey, and Landlord of the fields. They’ve also adopted the iconic cheer “¡Sí se puede!” (“Yes we can!” or “Yes, it can be done!”) that was popularized during Ecuador’s first run ever in the FIFA World Cup (2002). And when asked for additional interesting information, teammate Pietroski offers this “curiosity” from the Amazon: in some regions, the scent of ants is used as an insect repellent.
All of this adds up to a team that has greatly embraced the spirit of WTCOC: a group brought together by chance, curiosity, and a shared love of games, now stepping onto the international stage. Despite their newcomer status, they approach WTCOC with a clear-eyed mindset: they know they are underdogs, but they’re eager to prove their potential, pick up wins where they can, and gain experience against the world’s best.
Let’s give a big warm welcome to Team Ecuador: JuankyEND, danita91, Gary-San, JM2011, JorgEn309, Jotanan, Pietroski, sopadequinoa, tripeador22, and Zavely!
Presenting Team Sweden
As one of the two new debutants for the 2026 World Team Carcassonne Online Championship, Team Captain Helge_H was interviewed by Mr Curioussone about the Swedish team, their aspirations for the tournament and more. Building a team from scratch is never an easy task, the Swedish captain mostly resorted to scouring the vast player-base of Board Game Arena for the few Swedish players he could find. Finally locating the 8th player with mere hours remaining on deadline day, the team was assembled with the players Jazzkatten, jonben9603, Modig fruktsamlare, Moster84, Quabatrarz, skvallret and theheras. While some of the players are relatively new to the competitive Carcassonne scene, the game itself is considered a classic in Sweden, being a popular game among board game players. The players themselves bring diverse gaming experience from other strategic tabletop games like Catan, Pentaquest and even chess, while the more seasoned players have even taken part in national tournaments in the past. Helge_H further expressed his desire to build on the Carcassonne community in Sweden by hosting his own local tournaments in the future.
Despite being the only other Nordic country to join the tournament, Captain Helge_H does not shy away from the possibility of facing Finland in upcoming tournaments, perhaps to stake a claim that Sweden can match the best team in the region. To that end (and also towards performing well in WTCOC), the Swedish team has prepared extensively leading up to the start of the tournament with intense internal practice matches (with Helge_H), with each other (to improve team spirit) and with two international friendlies, which was initially meant to get the players used to the match format, but led to them besting Finland 3-2 in their first ever international friendly. In spite of that achievement, the team is taking a low pressure approach and are enthusiastic and happy just to take part and have fun in WTCOC 2026. Mr Curioussone can imagine the Swedish players having a Carcassonne-fika session with each other while having a coffee with some cinnamon buns. Even the captain himself has indicated that his wishes for this tournament is mainly for his players to put up a fair fight, learn to play better and to have fun working as a team together.
We wish the Swedish team Lycka till for their first WTCOC tournament!
P. S. While looking for more details about the Swedish team, Mr Curioussone found a multi-talented player in the form of Mordig fruktsamlare, who apparently is an Egyptologist , historian and a brave fruit collector (translation of name). And we’re wondering if skvallret is the Swedish Master of Whisperers because the name translates to gossip, rumors or idle talk.
Fika is a social tradition in Sweden when a coffee break becomes a time to connect, recharge and socialize with one other – as part of the work-life balance
Lycka till is Swedish for Good Luck
Thank you for reading, sharing & caring,
szigfrid, JinaJina, Mingo, kaika87, posij118 😘
