What began one year ago as an ambitious first step for MultiGP in Europe returned in 2026 bigger, deeper and considerably more international. From September 11–13, 108 pilots representing 25 countries converged on the Sportplatz SV07 Aich for the second MultiGP European Championship presented by VelociDrone, transforming the German venue into three days of almost continuous FPV racing.

Organized by Aircrasher and Bavarian Multirotor, the event brought together an unusually deep field of European talent alongside some of the strongest pilots in the world. The scale alone told part of the story, but numbers did not fully explain what happened in Aichtal. The level of competition did.

A Field With Almost No Easy Races

The warning signs were already there during qualifying. By the time the sessions were complete, the front of the standings looked less like the leaderboard of a continental event and more like a collection of international championship contenders.

Korea's Minjae Kim arrived in Germany as the reigning MultiGP World Cup winner following his victory at the 2026 International Open. Japan's Yuki Hashimoto was back in Aichtal to defend the European crown he had won twelve months earlier, while reigning MultiGP Champion Joaquin “JBOX” Ybanez added American firepower to the field. France had a proven winner of its own in Killian Rousseau, a former MultiGP World Cup champion.

All four were at the sharp end of qualifying, but the real story was the depth behind them. The gaps were small and the field remained dangerous far beyond the first few positions. A missed gate, a poor launch or a single crash could turn a comfortable qualifying position into a very long Sunday.

That became obvious once the elimination brackets began. Internationally experienced pilots could be found deep into the lower Mains, meaning that even reaching the A Main would require surviving opponents capable of winning major races themselves. There were very few comfortable heats in Aichtal.

The Long Road to the Top 16

MultiGP's double-elimination format rewards outright speed, but Sunday is ultimately about survival. Every pilot begins with a second chance; once that is gone, every subsequent heat becomes an elimination race. That dynamic produced some of the weekend's best stories before the title contenders had even armed their quads.

MAXDAX produced one of the first major runs. The German started in the D Main, worked his way through the bracket and won the Final Heat to earn promotion into the C Main. Instead of stopping there, he immediately went deep again, eventually reaching another Final Heat alongside Keepy, SCORB and XGG_FPV.

This time, however, the C Main belonged to another German.

Felix “SCORB” Strohmeier took the C Main victory and moved into a B Main loaded with fast European opposition. The level went up, but the result did not change. He survived another full double-elimination bracket, reached the Final Heat and won again.

It was one of the outstanding runs of the weekend. Two consecutive Main victories had taken the German from the C Main all the way into the A Main Top 16, turning what had begun as a long route through Sunday's field into a genuine opportunity to fight for the European Championship.

Then There Were 16

By Sunday afternoon, two days of qualifying and elimination racing had reduced the field to sixteen. The A Main brought together an exceptional mix of reigning champions, former international winners and some of the fastest pilots of the weekend, all starting the double-elimination bracket with two lives and one objective: reaching the Championship Heat.

The quality of the field meant there was effectively no favorable draw. From the opening round, championship contenders were racing against championship contenders, and a single poor result was enough to send even the biggest names into the Elimination bracket. Qualifying had established who was fast; the A Main would establish who could keep delivering when there was no margin left for error.

The Favorites Make Their Move

The early rounds immediately began reshaping the championship picture. Some of the pre-race favorites stayed on the cleanest possible route through the Winners bracket, while others were forced into the far more dangerous Elimination bracket and the sequence of win-or-go-home races that came with it.

As the Winners bracket reached its decisive stage, four pilots remained in contention for the two direct places in the Championship Heat: KillianFPV, Yuki, Minjae and FENO. Even after surviving this far without elimination, only half of them could take the direct route into the title race.

Killian and Minjae delivered when it mattered. The French former World Cup winner and the reigning Korean World Cup Champion claimed the two available spots and advanced directly to the Championship Heat. For defending European Champion Yuki and fellow Frenchman FENO, the defeat was not yet the end of the weekend — but it sent them into the Elimination bracket with no second chance remaining.

No Second Chances Left

One of the biggest names to fall in the Elimination bracket was reigning MultiGP Champion JBOX, and his exit came in particularly unfortunate circumstances. In Heat 9, the American was chasing SmallYuki down the straight before the tunnel and attempted to make the pass when the two drones collided in a midair. The impact took both pilots out of the race, bringing both of their European Championship campaigns to an abrupt end.

It was a brutal example of how unforgiving the Elimination bracket had become. There were no second chances left: one racing incident was enough to eliminate both the reigning MultiGP Champion and the Japanese pilot in a matter of seconds.

MARV_FPV, meanwhile, had kept his campaign alive through the Elimination bracket. The Liechtensteiner had already lost the luxury of a second life, but continued advancing while the field around him disappeared. Eventually everything came down to one final Elimination heat.

Four pilots remained in that race — Yuki, MARV_FPV, XGG_FPV and FENO — with only two places in the Championship Heat available. For the defending champion, it was suddenly a win-or-go-home situation. For MARV, it was the final step of a much longer journey through the Elimination bracket.

Yuki kept his title defense alive, while MARV completed his run through the Elimination bracket to claim the other remaining place. XGG_FPV and FENO saw their European Championship campaigns end just one race short of the final.

The Championship Heat was set: Minjae and Killian from the Winners bracket, Yuki and MARV from the Elimination bracket. Four pilots representing four countries, arriving by two very different routes, with the European title now between them.

Four Pilots. One European Championship.

Each finalist arrived with a different story. Minjae and Killian had survived the Winners bracket and earned the cleanest possible route to the final. Yuki, attempting to defend the title he had won on the same grounds one year earlier, had been forced to survive one final elimination race to get there. MARV_FPV had done it the hard way too, fighting through the Elimination bracket to keep his championship alive.

Minjae arrived at the decisive stage carrying perhaps the strongest momentum of anyone in international MultiGP racing. And there was a striking sense of déjà vu around his run. One year earlier, Yuki had arrived in Aichtal only months after winning the MultiGP World Cup at the International Open, then completed an extraordinary summer by becoming the first MultiGP European Champion. 2025 had unquestionably been Yuki's year.

Twelve months later, Minjae was following an almost identical path. The Korean had won the World Cup in Muncie in June and had now reached the final four of the European Championship. With Yuki himself standing among the four pilots trying to stop him, the question almost wrote itself: would 2026 become Minjae's year?

Chase the Ace

The European title would be decided using MultiGP's Chase the Ace format. Reaching the final four was not enough, and neither was simply winning one race. To close the Championship, one of the four finalists had to take two heat victories. They did not have to come consecutively, meaning the battle could potentially continue for several rounds as different pilots collected wins.

The opening heat immediately delivered the most dramatic finish of the weekend. Yuki and Minjae arrived at the line almost simultaneously, with the timing system initially awarding the victory to the defending Japanese champion. Yuki celebrated, believing he had taken the first step toward retaining his European crown.

Minjae was celebrating too. The Korean was convinced he had found just enough speed in the final instant to steal the race at the line. The margin was so small that the result could not simply be accepted from the lap timer, and the heat went under review.

What followed was more than ten minutes of waiting while officials examined the DVR footage frame by frame. Eventually, the video provided the answer: Minjae had crossed first. The difference was just two frames — less than one tenth of a second.

Yuki's celebration turned into a reversed result. Minjae had his first ace.

If the opening race had been decided by the smallest possible margin, the second could hardly have been more different. Yuki crashed almost immediately, removing the defending champion from the fight at the front and leaving Minjae in control.

This time there would be no photo finish and no review. The Korean dominated the heat and, with enough margin to know exactly what was about to happen, even threw a 360-degree rotation before diving through the finish gate.

It was part celebration, part exclamation mark. Two heats. Two victories. Chase the Ace complete.

Minjae Kim was the 2026 MultiGP European Champion.

Two frames decided the first.
The second left no doubt.

Minjae Conquers Europe

There are victories built around one extraordinary race, and there are victories that feel like the conclusion of an entire weekend. Minjae's belonged firmly in the second category.

He had arrived as one of the favorites, established himself among the fastest pilots during qualifying and then made his way through an exceptionally strong A Main. In the Chase the Ace final, he showed both sides of championship racing: first finding two frames when almost nothing separated him from Yuki, then producing a commanding second victory when the title was there to be taken.

The victory adds another major trophy to what is becoming a remarkable season. After winning the MultiGP World Cup at the International Open, Minjae Kim is now the 2026 MultiGP European Champion.

More Than a Championship

The result tells only part of the Aichtal story. The first MultiGP European Championship in 2025 had demonstrated that Europe could support an event of this scale. Twelve months later, the second edition felt less like an experiment and much more like an established international championship.

One hundred and eight pilots representing 25 countries made that point emphatically. The paddock brought together racers from across Europe and beyond, but perhaps more important was where that international depth appeared on the timing screens. German, French, British, Latvian, Swedish, Estonian, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, American and other flags were not simply present — they were spread throughout the competitive field.

Aichtal Is Becoming Part of MultiGP History

There was another conclusion to draw from the weekend. Aichtal is beginning to mean something in MultiGP.

Sportplatz SV07 Aich has now hosted two European Championships, and the combination of Aircrasher, Bavarian Multirotor, the volunteers, pilots and the wider European FPV community has given the event an identity of its own. BonerFPV's track provided the arena, the pilots supplied the speed and the double-elimination format supplied the drama.

But ultimately it was the scale of the gathering that made the second edition significant. Twenty-five countries did not come to Germany simply for another drone race. They came to compete for a European Championship.

After Aichtal 2026, the distinction matters.

And Minjae's 2026 story may not be finished yet. After winning the World Cup at the International Open and now adding the European Championship, the Korean will head to Dallas for the MultiGP Championship on October 15–17 with an opportunity no pilot has ever had before: to complete the historic triple crown by winning all three major MultiGP titles in the same season.

Yuki owned 2025. Minjae has already made a powerful claim on 2026. In Dallas, he will have the chance to make it a year unlike any other in MultiGP history.

World Cup. European Championship. One more title to make history.