VALORANT Champions 2026 Has 12 of 16 Places Open With EMEA and the Americas Yet to Send a Single Team
China and the Pacific have filled four seats between them ahead of the 24 September start in Shanghai. It is the last Champions under the franchised league system before the 2027 tournament model.
VALORANT Champions 2026 starts on 24 September in Shanghai and runs to 18 October, and with a month to go only four of the 16 places are filled.
Who is in
| Team | Region | Route |
|---|---|---|
| JD Gaming | China | Stage 2 |
| EDward Gaming | China | Championship Points |
| Xi Lai Gaming | China | Championship Points |
| Paper Rex | Pacific | Championship Points |
China has one place left and the Pacific has three. EMEA and the Americas have all eight of their places unfilled.
Qualification runs two ways per region: the two Stage 2 playoff finalists, then the two highest teams on Championship Points not already through. New for 2026, top Challengers teams could enter Stage 2, so a non-partnered organisation reaching Champions is now possible.
The format and the money
Sixteen teams go into four GSL groups of four playing best-of-three, with the top two from each group advancing to a double-elimination playoff and a best-of-five final. The prize pool is $2.25 million with $1 million to the winner.
Why this one is the end of an era
Riot has confirmed the VCT moves to a tournament model in 2027: more than 20 tournaments across 16 or more cities, open qualifiers for every Masters and Champions event, regional Cups replacing the league regular seasons, and two-year partnership cycles.
Champions 2026 is therefore the last world final decided under the current partnered-league structure. From next year, the route in stops being a season-long points accumulation inside a closed league and becomes a bracket anyone can enter.
For anyone pricing the event, that makes this year's data the last clean sample of the franchised era, and it makes the four teams already through - three of them Chinese - the only fixed points in an otherwise open field.
Following it on Playdash
Playdash covers VALORANT with match winner, map handicap and correct-score markets on every series, plus total maps, first-map winner, map-specific handicaps and round-total markets. Champions outrights, to-reach-playoffs and region-of-winner markets run through Stage 2 as the remaining 12 places are decided.
Dates, format, prize pool and qualified teams as published on 24 August 2026; 12 of the 16 places had not been decided at the time of writing.