Valorant Champions Tour 2026 calendar: overview of the esports year

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The Valorant Champions Tour closed out its most recent season with a clear message, anything is possible. North American organization NRG emerged as world champions with a thrilling Cinderella story, and all with three VCT rookies on their roster. The grand finals for the Champions event was a nail-biter finish, and it set an explosive tone for the upcoming season. 

Competitive Valorant has continued to grow more global, developing audiences across the globe and entertaining millions with its VCT events. Over the past year, shifting metas, surprise regional contenders, and a more competitive landscape reshaped expectations across the VCT ecosystem. Established powerhouses were pushed to their limits, while emerging teams proved that the gap between regions continues to narrow, setting the stage for an even more unpredictable future.

That momentum now carries directly into the Valorant Champions Tour 2026, a season poised to build on everything learned over the past year. Riot Games is once again refining its competitive structure, aiming to balance regional identity with international spectacle while giving teams more meaningful matches across the calendar. With Championship Points, Masters titles, and Champions qualification on the line, every stage of the season is set to matter more than ever.

As teams reset and fans look ahead, the VCT 2026 calendar outlines a packed year of regional leagues, global LANs, and a world championship that will ultimately define the next era of Valorant esports. Below, we break down every major event, key date, and competitive milestone to watch throughout the 2026 season.

VCT 2026 global calendar and schedule

Kickoff (Jan 15–Feb 15)

The Valorant Champions Tour 2026 begins with the Kickoff event in each of the four International Leagues (IL). The tour’s teams are not only fighting for VCT Points, but the top three teams of each Kickoff will qualify for Valorant Masters Santiago 2026, the first Masters tournament of the year. The Kickoff is now a triple-elimination bracket, putting the region’s best head-to-head until the best teams are crowned.
Dates for the VCT 2026 Kickoffs:

• Americas Kickoff, Jan 15-Feb 15
• EMEA Kickoff, Jan 20-Feb 15
• China Kickoff, Jan 22 - Feb 9
• Pacific Kickoff, Jan 22 - Feb 15

The top four teams for each region of Valorant Champions 2025 receive a first-round bye: a slight advantage for their strong performance last year. In the EMEA region specifically, the VCT 2026 EMEA Clash will take place just before Masters Santiago and give the best Challengers teams of the region a chance to play the VCT teams that missed qualification for the Masters tournament. The debut EMEA Clash will take place between February 16-26, 2026. 

Masters Santiago (Feb 28–Mar 15)

Taking place in Santiago, Chile, the Valorant Masters Santiago 2026 is Valorant’s first tournament in South America since LOCK//IN São Paulo in 2023. While in previous years, the first tournaments of the year only hosted 8 teams, this has been updated to twelve teams for 2026. 

The Masters event will have $1,000,000 on the line, and it will follow the usual format of a Swiss Stage leading to Playoffs. The 2nd and 3rd place teams of the ILs will fight it out in the Swiss Stage, before the top four advance to playoffs alongside the 1st place teams of the Kickoff.

Stage 1 (May 8–24)

After Masters Santiago, the teams return to their ILs and are split into two groups of six. These two groups will play a series of round-robin best-of-three matches. After five weeks of matches, the bottom two teams in each group are eliminated from the stage, with the top four teams advancing to the Stage 1 Playoffs.

The Stage 1 Playoffs will decide the three teams to qualify for Masters London in each region. Across the globe, Stage 1 Playoffs will take place within the window of May 8 to May 24. Adding some stakes, one unlucky team will make it to the playoffs in each region but fail to qualify for the international event. 

Masters London (Jun 6–21)

The second Masters tournament of the year, Valorant Masters London 2026, will follow the same format as Masters Santiago. Masters London will decide the top teams just ahead of Stage 2. The United Kingdom has never hosted a Valorant Champions Tour event before, but with many fan-favorite players hailing from the country (Jake “Boaster” Howlett, Benjy “benjyfishy” Fish, and more), it could well be a massive success. 

Stage 2 (Jun 30–Aug 16)

Things remain the same as Stage 1 for the second split of the year, but teams will now be looking to secure the final spots to qualify for Champions. As it was previously, each region will qualify four teams for the Champions tournament, two through the Stage 2 playoffs and two based on VCT Points. 

Also, for Stage 2, each IL will host a roadshow for the playoffs. In each region, the VCT magic will come to showcase the esports and appeal to other regional fans. The details for the roadshow are below.

• Americas: São Paulo, Brazil
• China: Chengdu, China
• EMEA: Madrid Spain
• Pacific: Busan, South Korea

Season Finals (Aug 5–Sep 6)

The Stage 2 playoffs, or Season Finals, is the final chance for teams to secure points and qualify for Champions. For the first time, Challengers teams will have the opportunity to battle it out against VCT teams and potentially qualify for Champions. 

Replacing the previous Ascension system, where Challengers teams vied for franchising spots, the tier-two teams are now competing for the best results throughout the season so that they can secure their Season Finals spot. In each IL, four Challengers teams will advance to the Stage 2 playoffs, where they can fight to potentially qualify for the premier year-end tournament. 

Valorant Champions (Sep 24–Oct 18)

Valorant Champions Shanghai 2026 will take place from September 24 to October 18. Details to the format for the tournament are still sparse, but it seems each IL will continue to qualify four teams, thereby making it a 16-team event. Last year, teams were split into cross-regional pots to battle it out in groups; these groups of four decided the top eight teams that advanced to playoffs.

The final tournament of the year for the Valorant Champions Tour will crown a new world champion for Valorant esports. Keep an eye on the tournament results and viewership of the VCT 2026 with our trusted database of esports livestreaming viewership.

Valorant Game Changers Championship (Nov)

VCT Game Changers, Riot Games’ offering for women and other marginalized genders, will likely follow the same structure as the VCT this year. Event namings and structures can differ slightly around the globe, but generally, February hosts the first tournament of the year, followed by another during Stage 1 in May, and a final stage and playoffs in July/August.

The top teams from around the globe will qualify to their respective circuits for the Game Changers Championship in November. Details are still sparse here, but soon, events will start kicking off around the globe. 

Valorant Challengers

The largest change to Valorant Challengers is, as we mentioned above, the removal of the Ascension system. Teams are no longer competing for a franchising spot but are instead attempting to qualify for the Valorant Champions tournament. This changes the focus of the league for many teams, and a shifting landscape might see organizations come and go as the dust settles.

Similar to Game Changers, the exact system and format of events differ slightly region to region, but generally, teams will compete throughout 2–3 main events during the year. These events roughly correspond to the Stage 1 and Stage 2 calendars for the VCT, but this can be skewed in the EMEA region, for example, where they operate under a three-split format. 

Ultimately, each of the Challengers teams will be attempting to secure strong results in the final event of the year, where the top teams will qualify directly to the Stage 2 events in their region. This will be a true trial by fire for Challengers rosters, but some of these teams have serious underdog potential to perform if given the chance.