About

Essie World Cup Curse, also known as 2026 FIFA World Cup VTuber Curse, refers to a series of memes and a humorous conspiracy theory centered on independent VTuber Essie (@essie_ch) that took place in July 2026 during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The joke asserts that any national team publicly supported by Essie is destined to lose, regardless of its chances of winning.

The running gag emerged during the tournament's knockout round of 16 after every team she endorsed in the bracket was eliminated in succession, leading fans to jokingly blame her for a string of unexpected defeats and upsets. The meme spread across X / Twitter, Reddit, Instagram and other social media platforms throughout the end of the football (soccer) tournament, with users tracking Essie's predictions before matches and encouraging her to either support or avoid specific teams.

Following the last semi-final between England and Argentina, Essie announced that she would no longer support any teams or wear their jerseys due to harassment and threats she received via email, DMs and Discord. However, she tweeted about France in the third-place match against England, with France losing shortly after. In her watchalong for the final, a graphic placing her next to Argentina's flag then resulted in many concluding that she had cursed them, causing them to lose to Spain in the final game.

Origin

Essie is an independent English-language VTuber based in the U.S. known for portraying a sleepy sheep character named Estelle, often shortened to Essie. Streaming primarily on Twitch and YouTube, she built an audience through variety gaming streams, chatting, art and community-focused content.

Prior to the World Cup meme, she was primarily known within the independent VTuber community for her laid-back personality, self-deprecating humor and frequent interactions with fans.^[1]

The 2026 World Cup curse originated during the round of 16 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in early July 2026, with teams being eliminated if they lost. As the knockout stage began, Essie posted on X / Twitter expressing support for several competing national teams before their matches.^[2]

On July 5th, 2026, Essie shared her first tweet expressing her support for the Brazilian team in their elimination match against Norway, which included a depiction of her sporting Brazil garb and the caption, "TODAY WE'RE WATCHING BRAZIL V NORWAY !! I'll be on @RowaVNU's channel watching the game!!!! see u soon!" The post garnered over 232,100 views and 3,000 likes in four days. Brazil notably lost to Norway during the game.

Later on July 5th, 2026, Essie posted on her X^[3] account @essie_ch and jokingly abandoned her support for Brazil in favor of Mexico, writing, "FRIENDSHIP ENDED WITH BRAZIL, VAMOS MEXICO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Mexico subsequently lost. The post received over 1.3 million views and 4,700 likes within four days as fans began noticing that teams she endorsed kept getting eliminated.

Spread

On July 6th, 2026, Essie shifted her support to Portugal, posting on her X^[4] account, "ITS OK, PORTUGAL HAS THIS LETS GO PORTUGALLL." Portugal then lost to Spain. The post garnered over 2.5 million views and 19,000 likes within three days, further fueling jokes that whichever team she backed would inevitably lose.

The same day, @essie_ch^[5] declared her support for the United States, writing, "I must rep my home country… USA !!!" The post amassed over 5.2 million views and 27,000 likes within the same timeframe as the "Essie World Cup Curse" became a recurring joke among her followers. The U.S. then lost its match to Belgium and was knocked out.

On July 7th, 2026, shortly before Argentina's Round of 16 match against Egypt, Essie^[6] posted, "I DONT WANT TO CURSE EGYPT BUT I WANT THEM TO WIN PLEASE EGYPT PLEASE!!!!!!" The post received over 2 million views and 32,000 likes in two days, referencing the growing belief that publicly supporting a team would cause it to lose.

After Argentina completed a comeback victory over Egypt that day, Essie^[7] jokingly asked, "guys isnt the world cup so fun :D," garnering over 1 million views and 20,000 likes within hours as users blamed her for transferring the curse to Egypt.

Later on July 7th, 2026, Redditor Roflkopt3r shared a Dexerto article about the meme to the /r/VirtualYoutubers^[8] subreddit under the title "Essie's World Cup curse has fans begging her to stop rooting for teams," receiving over 1,100 upvotes in two days. The thread compiled Essie's streak of incorrect World Cup predictions and the Argentina-to-Egypt switch

Also on July 7th, Essie^[9] leaned into the meme by asking, "can I still show my support for colombia….?" The post received over 6.9 million views and 84,000 likes that same day as fans joked that Colombia would become the curse's next victim. Colombia then lost to Switzerland.

On July 8th, 2026, 9GAG's Instagram^[11] account posted about the viral phenomenon surrounding the VTuber's WC curse, noting that every team she rooted for lost. The post received over 150,700 likes and 2,000 comments in a day.

On July 11th, 2026, Essie then made another tweet^[12] voicing her support for Norway in its quarter-final match against England, garnering over 12.3 million views, 125,000 likes, 10,000 retweets and 7,200 replies in two days. Norway subsequently lost the game and was eliminated from the World Cup, resulting in fans further blaming her and stating that the curse was real.

On the morning of July 14th, 2026, Essie posted an image to X^[13] of her avatar standing on a beach looking out toward the ocean while wearing a France jersey, garnering over 1.8 million views, 33,000 likes and 890 replies in a day.

France then faced Spain in the semi-finals and lost their match, continuing the curse. Following the loss that day, X^[14] user MelonbreadFBP replied to Essie's tweet with "bro" and an image depicting the score, receiving over 774,300 views, 39,000 likes and 80 replies in a day.

Also on July 14th, following France's loss, Essie tweeted^[15] the image again, editing a Dictator Mbappe meme into the horizon with the caption, "merde" (French for "crap"), garnering over 1 million views, 73,000 likes and 1,100 replies in a day.

On the morning of July 15th, 2026, ahead of England's match against Argentina in the semi-finals, Essie then tweeted^[16] a GIF of herself wearing an England jersey with the caption, "england….. england please…… please england….." The post received roughly 60,000 views, 3,800 likes and 520 replies in an hour.

england….. england please…… please england….. pic.twitter.com/h7JGISchrO

— essie 🐑🌾 (@essie_ch) July 15, 2026

Following England's loss to Argentina on July 15th, Essie tweeted,^[17] "im going to krill myself," garnering over 322,900 views, 17,000 likes and 1,600 replies in roughly an hour.

Shortly after, Essie posted again, announcing that she would not wear a jersey for the final match and that she was putting them down, tweeting, "sunday, there will be no jersey worn…………….. i have to put them down…………" The tweet received over 165,700 views, 7,400 likes and 770 replies in 40 minutes.

On July 18th, around halftime in the third-place match between France and England, Essie again tweeted^[20] about the World Cup, writing, "France," and garnering over 542,500 views, 17,000 likes and 370 replies in two days. France subsequently lost the game 4-6, with many concluding that she had cursed them again with the tweet.

Later on July 18th, 2026, Hololive VTuber Takanashi Kiara announced a collab watchalong stream with Essie for the finale of the 2026 World Cup, including a graphic of Essie next to the Argentinian flag and Kiara next to Spain's flag. Essie retweeted^[21] the post, receiving over 704,900 views, 29,000 likes and 600 replies in two days.

In the replies, numerous X users claimed that Essie being placed next to Argentina's flag in the image was her choosing them, with Argentina losing the final match against Spain the following day, thus continuing the curse all the way through the final game.

Harassment and Threats

On July 15th, 2026, after England lost in the semi-final to Argentina, continuing the "curse," Essie tweeted a screenshot of Gmail notifications on her alternate X account @shepgirl_ of someone harassing her, asking people not to do that. Shortly after, she stated that she was taking her email out of her bio because she was getting spammed.

The tweet garnered over 111,600 views, 5,300 likes and 40 replies in five hours before it was deleted.

Later that day, Essie tweeted again from her @shepgirl_ X^[18] account, noting that the harassment was too much and that her Discord and email were getting spammed. She added that she was done posting about the World Cup due to safety reasons. The tweet received over 669,800 views, 34,000 likes and 970 replies in a day.

Also on July 15th, 2026, Essie tweeted^[19] from her @essie_ch account that she was retiring from World Cup posting for the rest of the tournament because people were being unkind, thanking her fans for the clips, fan art and memes about the event, garnering over 41,000 likes, 1,800 replies and 1,900 quote-tweets in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References