Valorant's 2026 in Review: LOUD Make History, Korea Wins Santiago

On October 18, 2026, in Shanghai's Mercedes-Benz Arena, a Brazilian club lifted Valorant's 24-karat world trophy for the second time in four years. Captain Roberto "erde" Lobos and LOUD had just beaten Team Vitality 3-1 to win Valorant Champions 2026, and the Brazilian club became the first organisation to win Valorant's world championship twice.

It was a fitting end to a season of firsts. A Korean team that had to come through the promotion tournament a year earlier won the first international event. A Latin American roster with an average age under 20 won the second. And Paper Rex, the most entertaining team in the game, reached both Masters finals and lost both. Here is the whole 2026 Valorant Champions Tour, from January to Shanghai.

How the season worked

The VCT 2026 ran from January 15 to October 18, the sixth VCT season and the fourth under Riot's partnership system. 48 teams played in four international leagues of 12: Americas, EMEA, Pacific and China.

The year had three phases:

• Kickoff and Masters Santiago (January to mid-March)
• Stage 1 and Masters London (March to June 21)
• Stage 2 and Champions Shanghai (June to October 18)

Kickoff used a triple-elimination bracket; the Stages used round-robin groups and playoffs. Championship Points earned across the year decided the last places at Champions.

Masters Santiago: Korea's surprise

Nobody had Nongshim RedForce down as a contender in January. The Korean team had to play VCT Ascension Pacific, the promotion tournament, in 2025 and came through it to secure a place in the 2026 league. In 2026 it went unbeaten through Pacific Kickoff and then through the playoffs in Chile.

On March 15, at Santiago's Espacio Riesco, NS beat Paper Rex 3-0 in the final. The first map, Corrode, was a comeback from 4-8 down at half time to win 13-11; Split (13-4) and Abyss (13-3) were one-sided. Lee "Dambi" Hyeok-gyu was MVP, and NS took $350,000. It was the first Masters won by a team promoted through Ascension, and Korea's third Masters title in three years after Gen.G (Shanghai 2024) and T1 (Bangkok 2025). We tell the full story in our Nongshim RedForce report.

Masters London: the youngest champions

Paper Rex won VCT Pacific Stage 1, sweeping FULL SENSE 3-0, and went to London as a favourite again. It reached the final on June 21, beating Leviatán on the way. Leviatán, the Latin American club from VCT Americas, dropped to the lower bracket and then beat Team Heretics, Xi Lai Gaming, Team Vitality and EDward Gaming to earn a rematch.

The final went the distance. Paper Rex won Fracture 13-2 and Breeze 13-11, Leviatán took Split 13-6 and Ascent 13-10, and the decider on Lotus went to Leviatán 13-5. Bruno "Neon" Rodríguez was MVP.

Leviatán's line-up of blowz, Neon, Sato, spikeziN and captain kiNgg had an average age of 19.6, the youngest team to win an international Valorant event. It was also the first Masters title for a Latin American team, and made Leviatán only the third Americas organisation to win a Masters, after Sentinels and OpTic Gaming.

Stage 2 and the road to Shanghai

The summer stages added new names to the list. In EMEA, Karmine Corp beat Team Liquid 3-1 in the Stage 2 final for the French club's first VCT title. In Pacific, Global Esports completed a reverse sweep of Nongshim RedForce on September 6, losing the first two maps and winning the next three, 3-2, to take the Stage 2 title and the region's top seed. In between, 100 Thieves won Valorant at the Esports World Cup in Paris, beating NRG for the club's first international title.

In China, JD Gaming finished as the league's top seed and TYLOO second, while EDward Gaming and Xi Lai Gaming, both beaten by Leviatán in London, made it on Championship Points. In each league, the top two from the season earned direct places and the next two best on points took the rest.

Sixteen teams qualified for Champions:

• Americas: 100 Thieves, LOUD, NRG, G2 Esports
• EMEA: Karmine Corp, Team Liquid, FUT Esports, Team Vitality
• Pacific: Global Esports, Nongshim RedForce, Paper Rex, T1
• China: JD Gaming, TYLOO, EDward Gaming, Xi Lai Gaming

Champions Shanghai: LOUD again

Champions has been Valorant's world championship since 2021, and before this year every edition had a different winner: Acend beat Gambit Esports 3-2 in Berlin in 2021, LOUD beat OpTic 3-1 in Istanbul in 2022, Evil Geniuses beat Paper Rex 3-1 in Los Angeles in 2023, EDward Gaming beat Team Heretics 3-2 in Seoul in 2024, and NRG beat Fnatic 3-2 in Paris in 2025. Shanghai, two years after EDG's win, was the first Champions held in China.

The 2026 event ran from September 24 to October 18, with the group stage and early playoffs at the Jing'an Sports Center and the final weekend at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. The prize pool was $2.25 million.

LOUD, the Americas' second seed, did not have it easy. Vitality beat it in the group stage, and it then had to work through a playoff bracket containing defending champion NRG and Paper Rex. In the upper-bracket final, LOUD beat Vitality 2-1. Vitality came back through the lower bracket, beating 100 Thieves 3-1, to set up the rematch.

The final opened with Summit, which LOUD won 13-11. Vitality answered with a dominant Lotus, 13-8. Then LOUD took over: Sunset 13-5 and Haven 13-10. Captain erde was MVP. LOUD's line-up of tkzin, erde, lukxo, Darker and DaviH won $1 million, and Vitality, with Sayonara, Chronicle, Derke, Jamppi and PROFEK, took $400,000.

By the numbers

• 48 partner teams in 4 leagues of 12
• 3-0: Nongshim RedForce's sweep of Paper Rex in the Santiago final
• 19.6: the average age of Leviatán's London-winning roster
• 2: Masters finals reached and lost by Paper Rex in 2026
• $2.25 million: the Champions 2026 prize pool, with $1 million to LOUD
• 5: different Champions winners in the first five years (Acend, LOUD, Evil Geniuses, EDward Gaming, NRG), until LOUD became the first repeat winner in 2026

What to watch next

The 2027 season starts with an unusually busy off-season. T1, which reached Champions in 2026, is rebuilding for what reports describe as a new two-year partnership cycle, and early-November reports say former Sentinels star TenZ, who retired after Champions 2024 and joined T1 as a creator in May 2026, is set to return to competition with the club. Korean fans will also be watching whether Nongshim RedForce can turn its Santiago title into a lasting place at the top. We look at the whole Korean scene in our VCT Pacific story.

If you want one match to show a friend why Valorant works as a spectator sport, pick the London final: five maps, two comebacks, and a team of teenagers winning on Lotus. Valorant is free to play on PC from Riot's own launcher.