Valorant Champions 2026 Bracket – Recap & What-If

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How the Champions bracket and what-if mode work

Valorant Champions is the final and most important tournament of the season – in 2026, LOUD lifted the trophy. Our bracket mirrors the tournament exactly as it was played: when you open it, you see the final standings with every real result. Hide them and you start in the group stage, click through every group and instantly see which teams would have qualified for the playoffs based on your picks. Those eight teams automatically move into the double-elimination bracket, where you keep picking match by match until a world champion is crowned.

1. Hide the results: The “Hide results & make your own picks” switch above the bracket clears all 34 matches. “Show real results” brings back the final standings at any time – your picks stay saved.
2. Pick the groups: In each group, click the winner of both opening matches. The winners’, elimination and decider matches fill themselves with the right teams.
3. Choose a score (optional): Below every predicted match you’ll see the possible final scores – 2–0 or 2–1 in a Best-of-3, 3–0, 3–1 or 3–2 in a Best-of-5.
4. Play through the playoffs: Group winners and runners-up are paired according to the draw rules. Upper Bracket losers automatically drop into the Lower Bracket.
5. Crown the world champion & compare: After your Grand Final pick, the bracket shows your champion with confetti, the top 4 with prize money – and how many of the 34 matches you would have got right. Every match then shows whether you were right or how it really ended.
6. Share: Save your bracket as a PNG image (1200 × 675 pixels, ideal for Discord and X, with your score) or copy a link that restores your complete picks – whoever opens it sees your score and can try to beat it.

Clicking a team you’ve already picked removes the pick. If you later change an early result, the bracket clears every follow-up pick that has become impossible – so a team that was eliminated in your prediction can never end up in the final. In pick mode, “Random fill” lets a coin flip decide all open matches – a fun way to check whether chance would have beaten you.

Valorant Champions 2026 bracket & format

Champions 2026 ran from September 24 to October 18, 2026 in Shanghai. 16 teams from the four international leagues – Americas, EMEA, Pacific and China – competed for a total prize pool of US$2,250,000. The group stage and the start of the playoffs took place at the Jing’an Sports Center, the finals weekend at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Pudong – where LOUD won the title 3–1 over Team Vitality.

Group stage in GSL format (September 24 to October 4)

The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four, with no two teams from the same region ever landing in the same group. Each group was a small double-elimination tournament: after the two opening matches, the winners met in the winners’ match – whoever won it advanced to the playoffs as group winner. The two opening losers played the elimination match, and the loser was out. Finally, in the decider match, the loser of the winners’ match and the winner of the elimination match fought for the second playoff spot. All group matches were Best-of-3.

Double-elimination playoffs (October 7 to 18)

Eight teams reached the playoffs. The Upper Bracket ran through the quarterfinals, semifinals and Upper Final. Anyone who lost there got a second chance in the Lower Bracket. All playoff matches were Best-of-3 – with two exceptions: the Lower Final and Grand Final were played as Best-of-5. The Grand Final took place on October 18.

Valorant Champions 2026: groups & final standings

The draw produced four groups with one team per region each. In recap mode the bracket shows every real result with a green check; in what-if mode the results stay hidden until you have picked every match.

Final standings, Oct 18, 2026: LOUD became the 2026 world champions, beating Team Vitality 3–1 in the grand final (Summit 13–11, Lotus 8–13, Sunset 13–5, Haven 13–10) – after 2022 it is their second title, making LOUD the first organization with two Champions titles. Tournament MVP was erde. All 34 matches are in the bracket. The road to the final: in the upper final on Oct 16, LOUD turned the series against Team Vitality around to win 2–1 (Lotus 8–13, Summit 13–5, Haven 13–11). In lower round 3 the same day, 100 Thieves beat G2 Esports 2–1 (Lotus 10–13, Ascent 13–10, Summit 13–7) – G2 finished fourth. In the lower final on Oct 17, Team Vitality beat 100 Thieves 3–1 (Split 5–13, Lotus 13–11, Ascent 13–9, Summit 13–10) – 100 Thieves finished third. Before that: in lower round 2 on Oct 11, 100 Thieves beat NRG 2–0 and G2 Esports beat T1 2–1; in the upper semifinals on Oct 10, LOUD beat NRG 2–1 and Team Vitality beat G2 Esports 2–0. T1 and 100 Thieves won lower round 1 on Oct 9, and NRG, LOUD, G2 Esports and Team Vitality won the upper quarterfinals on Oct 7/8. From the group stage, Paper Rex, NRG, Team Vitality and 100 Thieves qualified as group winners, plus G2 Esports, Nongshim RedForce, LOUD and T1. Prize money: LOUD $1,000,000, Team Vitality $400,000, 100 Thieves $250,000, G2 Esports $130,000. You’ll find all the details in the Champions Live Hub.

How are the playoff matchups drawn?

The playoff quarterfinal matchups were drawn after the group stage ended on October 4. At Champions 2025, two rules applied: every group winner faces the runner-up of a different group, and two teams from the same group land on opposite halves of the bracket. This meant teams that had already met in the group could meet again in the upper bracket no earlier than the Upper Final; in the lower bracket an earlier rematch was possible.

The bracket uses the official draw from October 4: A1 vs C2 (100 Thieves vs G2 Esports), B1 vs D2 (Team Vitality vs Nongshim RedForce), D1 vs A2 (NRG vs T1) and C1 vs B2 (Paper Rex vs LOUD). The winners of the first two quarterfinals met in an upper semifinal, as did the winners of quarterfinals three and four. In what-if mode, your own group winners and runners-up land on exactly these seeds.

Important: The matchups in the bracket follow the official draw from October 4. The order of the Lower Bracket matchups follows the standard double-elimination scheme, in which the Upper semifinal losers cross over into the Lower Bracket.

Prize money: who won what at Champions 2026

Champions 2026 paid out a total of US$2.25 million. In recap mode the bracket shows the real top 4 with prize money; in what-if mode you see after your Grand Final pick which teams would have taken home the four biggest prizes according to your picks.

Favorites, storylines and surprises

A good prediction starts with the tournament’s big stories. NRG arrived as defending champions – NRG had won Champions 2025 in Paris 3–2 against Fnatic. But history was against a title defense: in five editions since 2021, no champion had managed to defend the title the following year. NRG opened with a 2–0 over Nongshim RedForce, won their group and were knocked out by 100 Thieves in lower round 2 (5th–6th) – so the streak without a title defense continues.

For the Chinese teams, Shanghai was a home event. EDward Gaming had proved in 2024 that China can produce a world champion, and they played in front of a home crowd alongside TYLOO, JD Gaming and Xi Lai Gaming. It didn’t help: none of the four Chinese teams got out of the group stage. Home advantage is hard to measure in esports – the atmosphere in a sold-out arena can make the difference on close maps, but it guarantees nothing.

From EMEA, Team Liquid, FUT Esports, Team Vitality and Karmine Corp were in the field. Karmine Corp opened with a 2–0 over Xi Lai Gaming, while Team Liquid had to take the detour through the elimination match after their 1–2 loss to Paper Rex – there they beat TYLOO 2–1 but then lost the decider 0–2 to G2 Esports on Oct 3. Karmine Corp went out too: after their 1–2 loss to NRG, KC fell 1–2 to Nongshim RedForce in the decider. FUT Esports lost their decider to T1 (0–2) on Oct 4 – leaving Team Vitality as the only EMEA team in the playoffs, and they went all the way to the grand final. The Pacific region sent Paper Rex, T1, Global Esports and Nongshim RedForce – Paper Rex had already reached the Champions final in 2023.

With LOUD (2022 world champions), EDward Gaming (2024) and NRG (2025), no fewer than three former Champions winners were in the field. Three ex-world champions among 16 teams – that alone made the tournament unpredictable. In the end, LOUD became the first organization to win a second title.

Prediction strategy: how to make realistic Champions 2026 predictions

Most brackets don’t fail on the world champion but on the many small decisions before it. These principles help with your what-if picks – and at the next Champions, so your bracket doesn’t fall apart after the first day of playoffs:

• Double elimination forgives mistakes: A strong team that loses early isn’t out – the Lower Bracket gives every playoff team a second chance. So never write off a top team just because it drops out of your Upper Bracket.
• Best-of-5 rewards depth: In the Lower Final and Grand Final, the map pool decides. Teams with many playable maps are harder to stop in a Best-of-5 than teams with two strong maps.
• Form beats name: Look at the results from the season before the event and from the group matches. Our agent pick rates and the Team Comp Builder show you which compositions the pros are currently running.
• Not just favorites: A bracket where only the favorites win rarely comes true. One or two well-reasoned upsets increase your chances of standing out from other predictors.
• Predict scores too: Whether a match ends 2–0 or 2–1 doesn’t matter for the official Pick’Ems, but it helps you sharpen your sense of the balance of power and compare with friends.

Champions bracket and official Pick’Ems

Our bracket is an independent fan tool and does not replace Riot’s official Pick’Ems. Group-stage picks locked when the tournament started on September 24. The Playoff Pick’Ems were open from October 4 (after the draw) until October 7 and locked about ten minutes after the first playoff match began (around 11:10 AM CEST). The bracket has every result up to the grand final – in what-if mode you pick after the fact and compare your picks with how the event actually played out. Our Pick’Ems guide explains the points system, rewards and pro tips.

Share your bracket

You can share your what-if bracket in three ways. As an image, the tool generates a PNG graphic with the Upper and Lower Bracket, all scores, your world champion and your score – right in your browser, no upload. As a link, you get a URL that restores your complete bracket; whoever opens it sees your score and can challenge it with their own picks. And as text, you copy a ready-made message with your champion, your score and the link, for example for your team’s Discord server. Your picks are also saved automatically in your browser, so you can pick up where you left off at any time. In recap mode you share the real final standings the same way.

It’s especially fun as a group challenge: everyone in your friend group or clan hides the results, picks the tournament from gut feeling and posts the link – who would have got the most matches right? At the next Champions, the same round works again before the event. If you want even more excitement, combine it with our Valorant Bingo for the broadcast.

All Champions winners since 2021

Three of the six finals so far went the full distance of five maps – in 2026 LOUD needed only four. LOUD are also the first team with two Champions titles (2022 and 2026).

More on Valorant Champions 2026

All results, match times in CEST and the update log are in the Champions Live Hub. What the tournament bundle cost and what was inside is covered on the Champions 2026 Bundle page. And if you want to try something yourself, the Tool Hub has Skin Cinema, an aim trainer, quizzes and more – all free in your browser.

What comes after Champions – the calendar from Kickoff in January, the 32 partner teams and every Open Qualifier – is in our VCT 2027 guide.

GSL math: every route into the playoffs

The GSL format looks confusing at first glance, but it follows one very simple rule: two wins take you through, two losses send you home. No team plays more than three matches in its group, and every group consists of exactly five matches – four groups give you the 20 group-stage matches in the bracket. Once you’ve internalized that, you can work out any group in your head before you even click.

• Route to 1st place: Win the opening match, win the winners’ match. With a 2–0 record, the team is through as group winner after just two series and can prepare for the playoffs in peace.
• Route to 2nd place “from above”: Win the opening match, lose the winners’ match, win the decider. The team needs three series and has to bounce back straight after its first defeat.
• Route to 2nd place “from below”: Lose the opening match, win the elimination match, win the decider. This is the hardest route – three series, two of which are genuine must-win games where any loss means elimination.
• 3rd place: Whoever loses the decider goes out with a 1–2 record – no matter whether the team came from the winners’ match or the elimination match.
• 4th place: Losing both the opening and the elimination match means 0–2 and the earliest exit of the tournament.

For your prediction, that means the winners’ match is the most important game in every group, because it decides the seeding. A group winner faces a runner-up in the quarterfinals – in other words, a team that has already lost once in the group. The decider, on the other hand, is the most nerve-racking match: both teams already have a loss on the board, and in 2026 the loser’s Shanghai run was over.

One detail many people overlook: the decider can produce a rematch from the first round. If, for example, Paper Rex had lost the winners’ match to G2 Esports, Paper Rex and Team Liquid (winners of the elimination match against TYLOO) would have met for a second time in the decider. In reality Paper Rex won 2–1, and G2 beat Liquid in the decider. Rematches like that are fascinating from a psychological point of view: the loser of the first meeting now knows the opponent’s game plan, while the winner has confidence on its side.

Recap: Of the eight opening winners (Team Vitality, LOUD, Paper Rex, G2 Esports, NRG, Karmine Corp, 100 Thieves and FUT Esports), six reached the playoffs – only Karmine Corp and FUT Esports fell in the decider. Of the eight opening losers, only Nongshim RedForce and T1 made it to the playoffs through the elimination and decider matches.

The long road through the Lower Bracket

In double elimination, a loss isn’t a death sentence – but it does make the road to the title noticeably longer. Exactly how long depends on when a team loses for the first time. Let’s simply count the series in the bracket: a team that loses in the Upper quarterfinals then has to win Lower Round 1, Lower Round 2, Lower Round 3, the Lower Final and the Grand Final. That’s five series in a row without a single further defeat, two of them Best-of-5.

The table shows why the Upper Bracket route is so valuable: a team that stays unbeaten needs only four series wins and at least nine maps. A team that stumbles in the quarterfinals has to win at least twelve maps and can’t afford a single slip along the way. It’s also striking that a semifinal loser is no better off than a quarterfinal loser: both need six series in the end. The semifinal loser only enters in Lower Round 2, but it has already won its quarterfinal before that.

For your prediction, this is an important trade-off. A Lower Bracket run to the title is possible, but every extra series is an extra chance to lose. If you still pick a team to become world champion after an early loss, you should be very convinced that on a good day it’s better than anyone else in the field. The flip side: a team that loses the Upper Final is only two series away from the trophy – so a finalist coming out of the Lower Final is never an exotic pick. 2026 showed both: after losing their quarterfinal to G2 Esports, 100 Thieves won three lower-bracket series in a row before falling in the Lower Final, and Team Vitality reached the grand final via the Lower Final after losing the Upper Final.

Bo3 vs Bo5: how the format changes your pick

Just how close a Best-of-3 can be was shown by the opening match between Paper Rex and Team Liquid. Paper Rex took Ascent comfortably 13–4, Team Liquid hit back 13–7 on Haven, and only Lotus decided the series 13–10 in Paper Rex’s favor. Three maps, two clear results in opposite directions and a three-round margin on the decider map at the end – series like that are exactly what makes group matches so hard to predict.

In the standard VCT format, each team usually gets to pick one map in a Best-of-3, and the third is whatever remains after the bans as the decider map. That means every team plays at least one map it feels comfortable on, and the series often tips on the third, “neutral” map. In a Best-of-5, more maps come into play and individual outliers carry less weight. Over more maps, the stronger team overall tends to come out on top – upsets remain possible, but they become rarer.

That gives you a simple rule of thumb for your picks: plan your upsets in the Bo3 rounds, i.e. in the group stage and early in the playoffs, and be bolder with favorites in the Lower Final and Grand Final. If you want to go deeper, check out the maps in our map overview, sketch typical setups on the Map Strategy Board or use the Duo Finder to see which agent combinations work well on which map. What the current patch has changed in the game is summed up in the patch notes – which also cover everything about the new Warden rifle. Whether and how much new content matters on the big stage always depends on which patch a tournament is played on.

Region check: who represents which league?

Each of the four international leagues sent exactly four teams to Shanghai, and thanks to the draw rule, every group contained exactly one team per region. That made every single group match an international clash – there were no regional derbies in the group stage.

The group-stage verdict was clear: all four Americas teams (NRG, LOUD, G2 Esports, 100 Thieves) reached the playoffs, three from Pacific (Paper Rex, Nongshim RedForce, T1), only Team Vitality from EMEA – and not a single team from China. The final top 4 was three Americas teams plus Team Vitality.

In the playoffs, teams from the same league then met as well – LOUD vs NRG in the upper semifinals, for example, or 100 Thieves vs NRG in lower round 2. When you make your what-if picks, it’s worth checking how many teams from each league make the top 8 in your bracket – and how that compares with the real result. Background on the leagues and the VCT system can be found in our esports overview.

All 16 Champions teams with players, coach and region are on our page Valorant teams & rosters 2026.

How to read upsets

Every match day brings results nobody saw coming – in 2026, for example, every Chinese team going out in the groups at their home event. The art of predicting is to neither ignore these surprises nor overrate them. A few questions help:

• How convincing was it? A 2–0 with clear maps tells you more than a 2–1 where the decider map went 13–10. Look at the map scores, not just the series result.
• What was at stake? In the GSL format, an opening loss isn’t elimination yet. The team gets a second chance in the elimination match – so an upset in the first game changes less than it seems at first glance.
• Is it a pattern or a one-off? A single result is one data point. Only when a team impresses or disappoints repeatedly should you rebuild your whole bracket.
• Who’s next? A team can pull off an upset and still be the clear underdog in its next match because the new opponent is a bad stylistic matchup.

What-if mode lets you play through exactly these questions: change an early result and every follow-up pick that has become impossible disappears. After the comparison, every match shows whether you were right or how it really ended – so you instantly see where your bracket would have tipped over.

Match times: watching Champions 2026 from Europe

Shanghai is in the UTC+8 time zone, six hours ahead of Central European Summer Time. Group matches started daily at 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM CEST – which was 5:00 PM and 8:00 PM local time. Here’s how that translates for other regions:

For many viewers, that put the matches right in the middle of school, university or work. Clocks in Europe didn’t go back until October 25, 2026 – after the Grand Final – so the whole tournament ran on CEST. The exact start times of the playoff days and the final are in the Champions Live Hub. If you prefer watching with commentary from the community, our streamer overview shows which German Valorant streamers are live right now.

Bracket challenge with friends: step by step

You can set up your own prediction contest with friends in just a few minutes – as a what-if round on the recap (the tool counts the hits automatically) or before the event at the next Champions. Here’s how to run it without arguments over the scoring at the end:

1. Set a deadline: The fairest option is the same cut-off as the official Pick’Ems – in 2026 that was Wednesday, October 7, before the first playoff match. By then, everyone knows the real draw.
2. Collect the brackets: Everyone fills in the bracket and posts their link in a shared Discord channel or group chat. The link restores the complete bracket including the draw.
3. Save proof: Everyone also uploads their PNG. That way, it’s clear later on what was predicted before the deadline.
4. Agree on scoring in advance: Decide how many points a correct winner and an exactly correct score are worth, and pick a tiebreaker.
5. Post the standings: After each playoff day, one person updates the table. That keeps the tension up right to the final.
6. Final tally after the Grand Final: That’s when the winner is decided – and gets to call themselves “Bracket King” until next season.

For scoring, we suggest a simple, escalating points system: one point for each correct winner in the quarterfinals and Lower Round 1, two points for the Upper semifinals, Lower Round 2 and Lower Round 3, three points for the Upper Final and Lower Final, and five points for the correct world champion. An exactly correct score earns a bonus point. The exact Grand Final score makes a good tiebreaker. That’s just our suggestion – feel free to adapt the rules to your group. And if you’re up for a match of your own after the final, organize a 5v5 with friends using Valorant Gather.

The most common bracket prediction mistakes

• Locking in before the draw: If you predicted before October 4 in 2026, you worked with a simulated draw. With the real matchups the quarterfinals – and with them the whole path through the bracket – changed, so always recheck your picks after the draw.
• Group winner equals finalist: A 2–0 in the group is a good sign, but no guarantee. Group winners face teams in the quarterfinals that have just battled through the decider and are in rhythm.
• Mixing up 3rd and 4th place: 3rd place goes to the loser of the Lower Final, 4th place to the loser of Lower Round 3. If you’re tracking the prize money, keep the two apart.
• Missing the Pick’Ems deadline: The official Playoff Pick’Ems closed on October 7 at around 11:10 AM CEST, about ten minutes after the first playoff match. Remember it for next time: if you only transfer your bracket picks in the evening, you’re too late.
• Overrating home advantage: Shanghai is a home event for the Chinese teams, but a crowd alone doesn’t win maps. Use it at most as a tiebreaker in close matchups.
• Building just one bracket: Feel free to play through several scenarios – a favorites bracket, one with your favorite team and one with “Random fill”. You can simply save the link for each scenario.

Bracket glossary: the key terms

Esports brackets have a language of their own. You’ll come across the following terms again and again in the bracket, on broadcasts and in the Pick’Ems:

After the draw on October 4: what happened next

The group stage ended with the decider matches on October 3 and 4, and the eight playoff teams were set. Straight afterwards, the quarterfinals were drawn and the official Playoff Pick’Ems opened – leaving around three days until the first playoff match on Wednesday, October 7, to finalize the bracket.

The bracket above uses the real matchups and shows every match with the official result. Use it to compare your picks with reality: which teams surprised you, which ones disappointed? Who scraped through the decider, and who marched through 2–0? If you want to know which agents the pros favor, build your own ranking with our agent tier list and compare it with the pro picks.

And one look beyond the bracket: alongside the tournament, the Champions 2026 Bundle was available until October 20, 2026 for 6,640 VP, with a Phantom and a melee weapon that transforms into a fan. In the past, part of the bundle revenue went to the participating teams – how that model works and why it matters so much to the teams is explained in our analysis of the Champions bundle economics.

The Champions 2026 bracket is history – which players have left their teams since is shown in the Valorant transfer tracker 2027.

Frequently asked questions