VALORANT Champions Shanghai 2026 Dates, Format, Prize Money
VALORANT Champions is the pinnacle of VALORANT competitive tournaments. It is a tier-1 competition, organised by studio Riot Games, and is the culmination of the VALORANT Masters series. This year’s event starts at the end of September in Shanghai, runs for nearly a month, and rewards $2.25m in prize money.
The Competition
The annual competition has been running since 2021. Teams from around the world, who qualify via their VALORANT Masters Championship points or regional qualifiers, compete at an offline LAN tournament.
The tournament is hosted in different cities each year, rotating between the competition’s four primary regions – China, EMEA, Pacific, and the Americas.
VALORANT Champions Shanghai 2026
This year, the final runs from 24 September to 18 October in Shanghai. Early rounds start at the Jing’an Sports Centre with the finals weekend moving to Pudong’s Mercedes-Benz Arena.
At the time of writing, tickets were still available. You can also watch the games on YouTube, Twitch, and Kick channels.
16 teams will compete for a $2.25m prize pool. First place walks away with a $1m prize, while 2nd and 3rd place finishers collect $400,000 and $250,000 respectively. 4th place wins $130,000 with further prizes paid down to 16th position.
The group stage of the tournament features four groups of four teams. Teams compete in a double elimination bracket. The top two teams from each group proceed to the playoffs. The playoffs are also played in a double elimination bracket.
Who’s Competing?
The 16 qualifying teams have been decided. There have been a couple of surprises. Fnatics are missing the competition for the first time in its history, and Leviatan failed to qualify, despite sitting at the top of the official Power Rankings.
100Thieves have a chance to repeat their EWC 2026 success but Paper Rex will start the competition as favourites. Nongshim RedForce and EDward Gaming are also in with a shout, after some decent performances in this year’s Masters events.
