The 2026 Valorant Champions is an ongoing esports tournament for the first-person tactical hero shooter video game Valorant. It will be the sixth iteration of Valorant Champions, the world championship tournament of the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) organised by the game's developer, Riot Games. The tournament will be held in Shanghai, China.
It will be China's first hosting of the tournament and the second international Valorant competition to be held both in the country and in Shanghai. This will also be the final Champions tournament in the franchise era as the VCT will return to an open qualifier format in 2027.
NRG from the Americas region are the defending champions heading into the event.
"If The Sun Burns Out Tonight" is the tournament's theme song, performed by Grabbitz, Oli Sykes, and Courtney LaPlante.
Host selection On 1 August 2025, Riot Games announced that the 2026 edition of Champions will take place in Shanghai, China. This is the second time Shanghai hosts a Valorant's global event after the Valorant Masters Shanghai 2024 event.
Venue Shanghai, ChinaGroup StagePlayoffs Jing'an Sports CenterMercedes-Benz Arena Capacity: 5,600Capacity: 18,000
Qualification Sixteen teams, including eight teams (seed 1/2) that finished in the top two of Stage 2, and eight teams (seed 3/4) that were out of top two but had most Championship Points in season of all three International Leagues (Americas, EMEA, Pacific) and China League, qualified for the event.
The teams that qualified for the event are:
RegionStage 2 WinnerStage 2 Runners-upChampionship Points #1Championship Points #2Americas100 ThievesLOUDNRGG2 Esports*EMEAKarmine CorpTeam LiquidFUT EsportsTeam VitalityPacificGlobal EsportsNongshim RedForce* Paper RexT1ChinaTYLOOJD GamingEdward GamingXi Lai Gaming* (*) Non-partner teams in franchise system
Group stage Sixteen teams were drawn into four groups of four teams each. Teams from the same region cannot be placed in the same group. Seed 1 team play against Seed 4, while Seed 2 team play against Seed 3 in the opening match. Double elimination: all matches are best-of-three. The eight teams consisting of the winners and runners-up of each group advance to the Playoff Stage. Remaining teams are eliminated.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Playoffs
Eight teams were drawn into a double-elimination bracket. The seed 1 team of each group was drawn against the seed 2 team of a different group in Upper Quarterfinals. Teams from same group were not drawn in same bracket until the Upper Final. All matches were best-of-three, except for the Lower Bracket Final and the Grand Final, which were best-of-five.
Qualified teams Eight teams qualified for the playoff portion of the tournament from the swiss stage: GroupWinnerRunner-upA100 ThievesT1BTeam VitalityLOUDCPaper RexG2 Esports DNRGNongshim RedForce
Bracket
References