Valorant Champions Runs for Twenty-Five Days in Shanghai and the Playoffs Move to an 18,000-Seat Arena
The tournament runs from 24 September to 18 October with a prize pool of 2.25 million dollars. Paper Rex is the only Pacific team confirmed so far.
Valorant Champions runs from 24 September to 18 October in Shanghai, with 16 teams and a prize pool of 2.25 million dollars. It closes the 2026 Valorant Champions Tour.
The event uses two venues, and the gap between them is the interesting part. The group stage is at the Jing'an Sports Center, which holds about 5,600. The playoffs move to the Mercedes-Benz Arena, which holds 18,000. That is a threefold jump in capacity partway through a single tournament.
Riot has done this before, and the logic is straightforward. Group stage days run long, feature four matches and sell unevenly, while a playoff day sells out. Splitting the venues means not paying for an 18,000-seat room on a Tuesday afternoon in week one.
Four regions send four teams each. EMEA has Karmine Corp, Team Liquid, FUT Esports and Team Vitality. China, hosting, has TYLOO, JD Gaming, EDward Gaming and Xi Lai Gaming. The Americas fill two slots from Stage 2 and two from the points rankings. The Pacific has Paper Rex confirmed and three places still to be settled.
Paper Rex is the Singapore-based organisation that has been the Pacific region's most consistent international performer, and it reached this tournament from fifth place in the Pacific playoffs rather than through a deep run, which is a reminder of how a points system rewards a full season over one good week.
China hosting matters commercially. Valorant's Chinese player base is large and the domestic league has grown quickly since it launched, and putting the season finale in Shanghai puts the trophy in front of that audience rather than streaming it to them at four in the morning.