Valorant Champions 2026 will run in Shanghai, China from Sep. 24 to Oct. 18, closing out the Valorant Champions Tour season. Riot Games has not yet revealed the specific venue. Shanghai previously hosted VCT Masters in 2024 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, and Champions arrives there as part of the wider V26 Tour.
According to the Riot League Handbook, the 16-team field will first be split into four GSL-style groups of four, with every match played as a best-of-three. The top two teams from each group advance to a double-elimination playoff bracket and the bottom two are eliminated. Playoff matches also run best-of-three until the lower final and grand final, which switch to best-of-five.
Esports Insider reports the group draw had not been finalized at the time of writing. Teams will be seeded by qualification method, with Riot separating regional Stage 2 finishers from Championship Points qualifiers and preventing teams from the same region from being drawn together.
Path to Champions opens a lane for Challengers teams
The biggest structural change this season is Riot's Path to Champions system, which lets top Challengers teams enter their region's Stage 2 competition and play established International League organizations for a Shanghai slot. Four Challenger representatives per region feed into the Stage 2 pathway in the Americas, EMEA and Pacific, while China runs a slightly different domestic structure. Teams that survive the Play-In phase can reach the main Stage 2 playoffs, where a top-two finish qualifies directly for Champions.
That leaves a genuine possibility of a non-partner organization appearing in Shanghai alongside the VCT's franchised sides.
Who has qualified so far
Each region sends its Stage 2 playoff winner and runner-up, plus the two highest-ranking eligible teams on the Championship Points ladder. Paper Rex, EDward Gaming and Xi Lai Gaming have locked in spots through Championship Points, while JD Gaming secured China's first Stage 2 qualification place.
Riot's Global Power Rankings currently put Leviatan first on a 19-8 record, a 70.4% win rate and 1,573 power score, ahead of Paper Rex on 1,519 points and defending world champion NRG on 1,470. Team Vitality, 100 Thieves and T1 complete the top six. NRG won Champions 2025 in Paris and will only defend the title if it qualifies.
Paper Rex carries a 25-9 season record and a 73.5% win rate into Shanghai after second-place finishes at both Masters Santiago and Masters London, where Nongshim RedForce swept them 3-0 and Leviatan edged them 3-2 in the grand final. EDward Gaming won Champions 2024 and reached the final four at Masters London before losing 3-0 to Leviatan in the lower final; Shanghai gives the Chinese organization a world championship on home soil.
The prize pool is reported at $2.25 million, with $1 million reserved for the champion, though Riot has not published an official breakdown. Champions will stream on the official Valorant YouTube and Twitch channels alongside co-streamers and regional-language broadcasts, and Riot has not yet released the broadcast schedule.