Valorant Champions Tour 2026 - Full Schedule And Where The Season Stands Right Now

The 2026 Valorant Champions Tour turned out to be one of the most unpredictable seasons the game has seen. We have watched twelve months of Kickoff drama, two Masters events, and a Stage 2 grind that is still deciding who gets a golden ticket to Shanghai. Let's follow LDShop as we walk through the entire VCT 2026 calendar, break down what already happened, and map out exactly what is left before the year ends at Champions.

How Riot Structured The 2026 Season

Riot rebuilt the qualification path this year to make every region matter more than before. The season opened with an expanded Kickoff stage that used a triple elimination format, meaning teams got three strikes before elimination instead of the usual one shot. Twelve teams entered each Kickoff, but only three winners per region earned a direct trip to the first Masters event.

After Kickoff wrapped up, Stage 1 split each International League into two groups of six teams. Every group ran a single round robin, and the top four in each group moved into Stage 1 Playoffs to fight for three spots at Masters London. Finish in the bottom two of your group, and your Stage 1 run ended right there.

Stage 2 raised the stakes even higher. Groups got reshuffled, the top four teams from each region jumped straight into Playoffs, and the bottom eight had to survive a brutal Play-In bracket against four Challengers teams from their own territory. Only four of those twelve teams made it through to join the group stage leaders in Playoffs.

Masters Santiago Set The Tone Early

Masters Santiago ran from February 28 to March 15 in Chile, becoming Latin America's first-ever Masters host outside the earlier LOCK//IN event. Twelve teams competed for a million dollar prize pool, and Nongshim RedForce walked away as champions after sweeping Paper Rex 3-0 in the grand final. That win marked the Pacific region's fourth straight Masters trophy and gave Nongshim RedForce their first international title as an organization.

The format paired a Swiss stage for the second and third seeds from each league with a double elimination bracket for the four regional Kickoff winners. It was a clean structure that rewarded consistency without punishing a single bad map too harshly. If you are curious which agents carried teams through that bracket, our duelist tier list breaks down who dominated the pro scene this year.

Masters London Delivered A Different Champion

Stage 1 wrapped up by late May across all four leagues, and Masters London took over from June 6 to June 21 at the Copper Box Arena. This was the first time an international Valorant event landed in the United Kingdom, and it lived up to the occasion.

LEVIATÁN entered through the lower bracket after dropping their opener to Paper Rex, then clawed back through three straight series wins to force a rematch in the grand final. This time LEVIATÁN closed it out 3-2, taking home the trophy and proving that a rocky start does not always decide the ending. Paper Rex finished as runners-up for the second consecutive Masters, while EDward Gaming took third place representing the China league strongly on foreign soil.

Stage 2: The Final Push Toward Champions Shanghai

Stage 2 is where every region is currently fighting, and the schedule has been staggered across July and August so fans get near constant Valorant action. Here is how each league's Stage 2 timeline breaks down.

Region	Group Stage	Play-Ins	Playoffs	Host City
China	Jul 9 – Jul 26	Aug 4 – Aug 12	Aug 13 – Aug 23	Changsha and Chengdu
EMEA	Jul 16 – Aug 3	Aug 5 – Aug 17	Aug 20 – Aug 31	Madrid
Americas	Jul 16 – Aug 9	Aug 13 – Aug 23	Aug 27 – Sep 5	São Paulo
Pacific	Jul 16 – Aug 9	Aug 13 – Aug 24	Aug 27 – Sep 6	Busan

China Stage 2 has already crowned its finalists. TYLOO took the regional title, with JD Gaming finishing second and both teams securing direct Champions berths. EMEA, Americas, and Pacific are all deep into their Playoff brackets right now, and results from these final weeks will shape who boards the plane to Shanghai. If you want to jump into ranked or grind your own agent unlocks while the Playoffs play out, a Valorant top up can get your account ready without the wait. The best platform to make the top-up is LDShop, it lets players top up for less and it is a great way to save money.

One detail worth noting is Riot's decision to take Stage 2 finals on the road this season. Instead of running every league final out of the same fixed arena, each region got its own host city for the first time. That change alone has pushed regional attendance and viewership higher than last year, and it signals Riot wants Valorant esports to feel less centralized and more like a true world tour. The pro meta has also shifted a fair bit since the season started, so our patch 13.04 guide is worth a look if you want to see what changed under the hood.

How Teams Qualify For Champions Shanghai

Every International League sends exactly four teams to Champions, and the math behind that is simpler than it looks once you break it down.

• The Stage 2 Playoffs winner from each region qualifies automatically.
• The Stage 2 Playoffs runner-up from each region also qualifies automatically.
• The remaining two spots per region go to whichever teams collected the most Championship Points across the entire season, counting Kickoff, both Masters events, Stage 1, and Stage 2.

This points system rewards teams that stayed competitive all year instead of peaking once. A team that never won a trophy but consistently finished in the top four could still sneak into Champions over a flashier squad that had one great week and several poor ones. It is a smart way to keep mid-table teams motivated deep into August rather than checking out once their title hopes fade. Fans wanting to climb their own rank while watching this race play out can check our competitive system guide for a refresher on how RR and rank rating work this season.

Champions Shanghai: The Final Stop

Once Stage 2 finishes across all four regions, the entire Valorant world turns to Champions Shanghai, scheduled from September 24 to October 18. The prize pool sits at 2.25 million dollars, the largest of the season, and this edition will be historic for another reason. For the first time, Challengers teams and franchised VCT teams will share the same Champions stage, widening the field beyond just the International Leagues.

With 48 teams having already competed across four regions this year, only sixteen will make the trip to Shanghai. Every match from here forward carries real weight, and teams sitting on the qualification bubble in EMEA, Americas, and Pacific know exactly what is at stake in these closing weeks. Shanghai will also land right around the next content drop, and our Act 4 update breakdown covers what to expect once the season shifts.

Conclusion

The 2026 Valorant Champions Tour has already given fans two different champions, a new host city on nearly every continent, and a qualification system that keeps almost every team alive until the final stretch. With Stage 2 Playoffs wrapping up across EMEA, Americas, and Pacific in the coming days, the last Champions Shanghai slots are about to be decided. Keep an eye on the standings because the road to Shanghai is closer to finished than it has ever been this late in a Valorant season.