16 Teams Ready To Compete At VALORANT Champions Shanghai 2026
The 16 qualifiers for the VALORANT Champions 2026 Shanghai, which kicks off later this month, have now been locked in.
The 16 teams are made up of four from each regional league – Americas, EMEA, Pacific, and China. Two teams from each region qualified by winning or placing runner up in the respective regional playoffs. Two further teams from each region qualified via their Championship Points standings.
VALORANT Champions 2026 Qualifiers
The tournament kicks off on September 24 and runs until October 18. The group stage sees four groups of four teams competing in a double elimination bracket. The top two from each group progress to the double-elimination playoffs and share the $2.25m prize pool, along with a split of in-game skin sales.
The qualifying teams are:
Americas:
- 100 Thieves
- LOUD
- NRG
- G2 Esports
China:
- JD Gaming
- TYLOO
- EDward Gaming
- XLG Esports
EMEA:
- Karmine Corp
- Team Liquid
- FUT Esports
- Team Vitality
Pacific:
- Global Esports
- Nongshim RedForce
- Paper Rex
- T1
Competition Favourites
2 major names have failed to make the cut. Leviatan, winners of the VALORANT Masters London event and head of Riot’s Power Rankings, failed to qualify for the tournament. Leviatan’s failure is the first time a Masters winning team has failed to make the Champions tournament in the same year, since the start of the VALORANT Champions event in 2021.
Fnatics, one of only two teams to have won two Masters tournaments, and last year’s runners up, also failed to qualify. It is the first time in the history of the competition the UK-based team have failed to qualify.
On paper, that leaves Paper Rex, who finished runners-up in London and Santiago, as favourites of the VALORANT Champions 2026 qualifiers. 100Thieves also have a reasonable shout, having won the Esports World Cup VALORANT competition in August. They beat reigning world champions NRG 3-1 in the final.
However, Santiago winners, Nongshim RedForce, and EDward Gaming, could be well poised to take advantage if Rex continue to struggle to get over the finishing line and 100Thieves’ victory proves to be a one-off.
