Fnatic And Leviatan Fail To Make VALORANT Champions 2026 Teams
16 teams have qualified for the VALORANT Champions 2026 Shanghai, which starts on 24 September. Four groups of four teams will compete in a double elimination bracket during the group phase, with two teams from each group progressing to the playoffs. Playoffs also use a double elimination bracket.
Fresh from their victory at the EWC 2026 VALORANT competition, 100Thieves have qualified. So, too, have Paper Rex, who finished runners up in both the Santiago and London Masters events.
However, two teams expected to compete but that failed to make the cut, are Fnatic and Leviatan.
Fnatic Out
Fnatic is a London-based esports organisation – the leading light in UK esports. Although Fnatic has never won the Champions event, they won the Sao Paulo Lock In and Masters Tokyo events in 2023. They finished runners up in last year’s Champions event, losing to NRG in the final, and have featured in every single Champions competition.
Until Now. After losing 2-0 to JobLife, their streak has come to an end. It’s been a year to forget for Fnatic, who may well look to make some VALORANT roster changes before next season.
Leviatan Out
Most recently, Leviatan were eliminated following the VCT Americas Stage 2 tournament. Leviatan previously won the Masters London event, and their failure to qualify is the first time a Masters winner has failed to make the final event in the same season.
Who’s Left?
With the tournament missing last year’s losing finalist and one of this year’s Masters winners, it leaves a good opportunity for other VALORANT Champions 2026 qualifiers.
Paper Rex will start the competition as favourites, thanks to their 2nd placed finishes in the Masters Santiago and Masters London events.
However, their will be question marks raised about their ability to finish out competitions and they have underperformed this year, especially compared to last.
EDward Gaming, who won the 2025 Champions could become the first team to win two editions of the major tournament.
Nongshim RedForce enjoyed a couple of very strong months earlier in the season, beating Paper Rex 3-0 in the final of the Masters Santiago, after victory at the VCT 2026: Pacific Kickoff. Since then, they enjoyed a 3rd place finish at the World Cup – which was won by 100Thieves.
100T won the event and pocketed the $600,000 prize, after winning the Americas Qualifier. Victory here would give the US team their best run of results in competitive VALORANT.
