Valorant Champions 2026 has its full 16-team field and its group draw, Dot Esports reported. The season-ending tournament runs from September 24 to October 18 in Shanghai, China, split across the Jing'an Sports Center and the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
The field was completed by the Stage 2 playoffs in the Americas, EMEA, Pacific and China. The top two teams from each region qualified directly, and two further slots in each region went to the teams with the highest Championship Points totals, leaving four teams from each of the four regions. The prize pool is $2,250,000, of which the winner takes $1,000,000.
The four groups
- Group A: 100 Thieves, T1, JD Gaming, FUT Esports
- Group B: Global Esports, LOUD, EDward Gaming, Team Vitality
- Group C: TYLOO, G2, Team Liquid, Paper Rex
- Group D: Karmine Corp, Nongshim RedForce, NRG, Xi Lai Gaming
100 Thieves arrive in Group A as the Americas Stage 2 champions and as the winners of Esports World Cup 2026. Global Esports lead Group B as Pacific's Stage 2 winners, alongside LOUD, EDward Gaming and Team Vitality, who are seeded fourth from EMEA. TYLOO top the Group C seedings as China's Stage 2 winners and carry a home-region edge, and their opening match is against G2. Group D is made up of Karmine Corp, Nongshim RedForce, NRG and Xi Lai Gaming.
NRG arrive as the defending champions and the only organisation to have won Champions twice, chasing a third trophy and a back-to-back title, Esports.gg reported as the field was taking shape. The same report noted this will be the first Champions event without Fnatic: since the organisation's win at Masters Tokyo 2023, EMEA has been chasing another Masters or Champions trophy without success.
Format
The top two teams from each group move into an eight-team playoff bracket run as a double elimination. Every playoff match is a best-of-three except the lower bracket final and the grand final, which are best-of-five. The winner takes the $1,000,000 first prize and the Champions trophy.
Champions 2026 closes out this year's Valorant season. Riot Games has already announced VCT 2027 Open Qualifiers, which begin in November and open a path to Champions to teams of all kinds.