Karmine Corp Beat Team Liquid in Barcelona and Booked a Place at the Last Franchised Valorant Champions

Valorant Champions begins in Shanghai on 24 September, and the field is filling up.

Karmine Corp added their name over the weekend by winning VCT EMEA Stage 2 in Barcelona, beating Team Liquid 3-1 in the grand final after a 2-0 semi-final against FUT Esports. Dastan "dos9" Zhumagali was named the most valuable player of the final with 70 kills at 154 average damage per round.

In the Pacific league, Paper Rex won Stage 2 to take their slot, with Nongshim RedForce qualifying on championship points. China's four are settled: TYLOO, JD Gaming, EDward Gaming and Xi Lai Gaming. FUT Esports and Team Vitality hold EMEA places on points alongside Karmine Corp. In the Americas, NRG are in as reigning champions from 2025, with the remaining slots still being decided. The tournament takes sixteen teams, four from each of the four international leagues, and the full list is not yet final.

Shanghai will use two venues: the Jing'an Sports Centre for the group stage and bracket play, and the Mercedes-Benz Arena for the finals weekend. The prize pool is 2,250,000 US dollars. This is the city's first Champions, after it hosted Masters in 2024 and knockout stages in 2025.

The reason this edition carries extra weight is structural. Riot has confirmed that the franchised era of the Valorant Champions Tour ends after 2026, with the circuit reverting to an open qualifier format from 2027. That means the current partnership model — a closed set of leagues with guaranteed slots — produces one more world champion before the route to Champions opens up again.

For teams that bought into franchising, this is the last tournament played under the terms they signed for. For everyone outside it, 2027 is the first realistic path back.

One caveat on dates: 24 September is confirmed as the start, but the reported 18 October finish comes from secondary coverage rather than a Riot announcement and should be treated as provisional.