Amsterdam expected a party. What it got instead was a punch to the gut.
Michael van Gerwen walked into AFAS Live as top seed, defending champion and home favourite. He left it after a first-round defeat that nobody in the building saw coming until the darts started missing. Daryl Gurney, a late call-up after visa problems removed two Philippines players from the field, beat him 6-5 in a match that swung from one extreme to the other and then refused to settle.
This was supposed to be Van Gerwen’s night. Last year he beat Luke Littler in the final here. He has won this event six times. A seventh title would have been a record. Instead the three-time world champion missed six match darts and watched a player who was not even in the original 32-man draw take the decider on throw.
That is darts. It is also the story of Van Gerwen’s 2026 so far.
A night that would not sit still
Gurney came out flying. He raced into a 3-0 lead, landing a 170 checkout and an 11-darter while Van Gerwen barely got a look at a double. The Amsterdam crowd went quiet. Then the home favourite did what he has done for more than a decade: he flipped the match.
Five legs in a row. Suddenly it was 5-3. Van Gerwen was one dart from the last 16. Gurney looked finished.
He was not. Van Gerwen missed those six match darts in the tenth leg. Gurney levelled, then held his throw in the decider and took out double 16. The PDC called it the shock of the night. They were not wrong.
Gurney was honest afterwards. “It was really hard work. I can’t remember the last time I won on a major stage,” he said. “I put my darts away twice because Michael had six [match] darts. In all honesty, I was very lucky to even go 5-5 and I had the throw I was like ‘please I need trebles’.”
That quote tells you everything. Gurney knew how fortunate he was. He also knew how to finish the job when the chance came.
Why this one stings
Van Gerwen had won World Series events in Bahrain and Denmark on the way here. Those results suggested the old spark was returning after a difficult year. Playing at home should have helped. The crowd was ready. The draw looked manageable once Ilagan withdrew.
Instead the same old problem appeared at the worst moment. When the match darts arrived, they would not go in. That has happened too often in 2026. It is just the second time he has lost his opening match at these Finals. The first time felt like a blip. This one feels like a pattern.
Gian van Veen gave the home fans something to cheer later in the night with a 6-2 win over Chris Dobey. Dirk van Duijvenbode also got through. Luke Humphries and Josh Rock advanced as well. The tournament moves on without its defending champion. That is rare at this event.
Gurney now faces Ross Smith on Saturday. Smith is no easy draw, but the Northern Irishman has already done the hardest part. He arrived as a reserve and left with the biggest scalp of the opening night.
What it means from here
Van Gerwen is 37. He has lost weight, started livestreaming and talked about enjoying the game again. Those are good signs. Missing six match darts in front of your own crowd is not. The World Series Finals do not count for the world rankings, so the ranking points damage is limited. The psychological damage is another matter.
Darts has changed. Luke Littler is world number one and starts his campaign on Friday against Danny Noppert. Humphries is right there with him. Younger Dutch players like van Veen are pushing. Van Gerwen can still produce nights that remind everyone why he dominated for so long. He just cannot keep producing nights like Thursday if he wants to stay in that conversation.
Gurney’s win also says something about the depth in the game. A player who has struggled for major-stage wins outside the World Cup can still turn up, throw a 170 and punish the best when they wobble. That is why first-round matches at this event are never straightforward, even when the favourite is playing at home.
The rest of the weekend now looks different. The path that opened for Littler, Humphries, van Veen and the rest is a little clearer. Van Gerwen will watch from the sidelines and, if his recent comments are any guide, he will be angry with himself. Dutch reports had him calling the result nonsense. You can understand why.
A familiar ending, a new question
This was not a collapse from the first dart. Van Gerwen came back from 3-0 down and put himself in position to win. That part still looks like the player who used to bully these stages. The finishing does not.
Six missed match darts decide matches. They also decide how people talk about a season. Van Gerwen’s 2026 already had question marks. Thursday added another one in the loudest possible setting.
Gurney deserved the win. He stayed in the fight when most players would have folded and he took the chances that were given to him. Van Gerwen will know that better than anyone.
The World Series of Darts Finals continue without their six-time champion. Amsterdam will keep making noise. The question hanging over the rest of the year is whether Van Gerwen can turn nights like this into fuel or whether they keep piling up.
What did you make of it? Was this just one of those nights, or another sign that the old certainty has gone?