In just six short years, VALORANT has risen to become one of the top PC esport globally and VCT 2026 is setting itself up to be one for the books. The viewership is comparable to veteran titles like Counter-Strike 2 and Rainbow Six Siege, and the titles enjoy a regional parity like no other esport.
This means there is a top-tier VALORANT game almost every day of the week, with Masters and Champions adding to the tier 1 action. Not to mention the active circuit for women and marginalized genders—Game Changers—and the upcoming pro circuit—the Challengers. With so much VALORANT action to keep up with, it gets confusing fast.
In this guide, we will simplify the VCT circuit and introduce interesting storylines to follow, and list helpful tools to stay on top of everything VCT and beyond.
The 2026 VCT Format Explained
The 2026 VCT is the tier 1 VALORANT circuit where the best of the best clash. The action kicks off at the regional level, where the four regions—Americas, EMEA, Pacific, and China—play the season’s inaugural Kickoff event.
The Kickoff
Every Kickoff event featured a debutant triple-elimination bracket, in which the 12 teams were seeded based on their 2025 performance. Teams that qualify for the previous VALORANT Champions skip the first round, while the bottom 8 teams play their opening games.
The four Kickoff events feed a total of 12 teams—three from each league—into VALORANT Masters Santiago.
VALORANT Masters Santiago features two stages: Swiss and Playoffs. The first seeds/Kickoff champions of the international leagues—four teams—skip the Swiss stage. The remaining eight teams play the Swiss stage, and only four qualify for the Playoffs.
Following the Swiss stage, the high-seeded teams choose their opponents for the opening games of the double-elimination bracket playoffs. The team that survives the stage is crowned the champion of VALORANT Masters Santiago.
Nongshim RedForce won the VALORANT Masters Santiago title// credits: Colin Young-Wolff
Stage 1
The International League Stage 1 follows the Masters 1 actions. The Stage 1 action kicks off with the Group Stage in every region, where 12 teams are divided into two groups. Each group plays a single round-robin bracket, with every team playing every other team in the group once.
A total of 8 teams—top 4 from each group—qualify for the Stage 1 Playoffs. These teams are seeded in a double-elimination bracket with the higher seeds from one group playing the lower seeds from the other. The top 3 teams qualify for VALORANT Masters London 2026, and the team that wins the bracket is crowned the Stage 1 champion.
Paper Rex were crowned the VCT 2026: Pacific Stage 1 Champions //credits: VCT Pacific
London will follow the same format as Masters Santiago.
Stage 2
Following the Masters 2 actions, the final split of the international league will kick off with the Group stage. Similar to the previous stage, 12 teams will be drawn into two groups and will play a single round-robin bracket. The bottom two teams from each group will be eliminated from the competition.
Unlike Stage 1, however, Stage 2 will feature an additional Play-In stage, where four Challenger teams will join the bottom eight—seeds 3-6 from Group A and B—international stage teams. More details on the exact format will be available closer to the tournament’s kickoff.
The top 4 teams from the group stage and the top 4 from the Play-In will qualify for the Playoffs. Top seeds will skip the opening stage, and the bottom two teams from the Play-In stage start in the Lower Bracket.
The bracket winners will be crowned the international league champions and will qualify for VALORANT Champions 2026. One additional team will qualify from the Playoffs bracket.
VALORANT Champions 2026
A total of 16 teams—four from each region—will play at VALORANT Champions 2026. Two of the four teams will qualify via the Stage 2 Playoffs, and the remaining two are invited based on the regional points leaderboard.
The 16 playing teams will then be divided into four groups. Each group will play a double-elimination bracket. The draws will decide the opening fixtures of each group. Two teams from each group will qualify for the Playoffs.
Eight teams will play the final double-elimination bracket of the year. The draws will decide the opening match-ups. Once the dust settles on the bracket, one team will stand on top as the VALORANT Champion 2026.
Game Changers & Challengers — The Tier-2 Layer
The official VCT circuit and the international league represent the top tier, or tier 1, of VALORANT esports. At tier 2, we have challengers that are played in the sub-regions. Usually, teams play through these challengers for a spot in VCT Ascension and eventually the international leagues.
For 2026, however, four challenger teams will qualify for the Stage 3 Play-In stage of the international leagues.
The four challenger teams qualifying will be based on the sub-regions within the four international leagues, and the qualification rules will vary by region.
The Game Changers is Riot’s official circuit for women and marginalized genders. The circuit features three regional circuit stages—Americas, China, EMEA, and Pacific. It concludes with the VCT Game Changers Championship 2026.
In the first two stages, the teams play for qualification to the subsequent stages, skipping the open-circuit part of the tournament. The stakes are higher as the teams play for qualification to the VCT Game Changers Championship. Riot has yet to disclose the details for the GC championship.
Where to Find the Full VALORANT Match Schedule
Riot Games’ VALORANT esports hub is the go-to place for keeping up with upcoming official events. The hub has options to filter the games by region, event, and standing details, power rankings, and more. The hub can also be used for playing the Pick’Ems for international events.
The esports hub, however, does not provide an aggregated view of all the upcoming VALORANT tournaments. With the rise of the Esports World Cup tournament circuit, it has become crucial for fans to have an aggregated view of third-party tournaments and the official circuit.
The full VALORANT match schedule—with aggregated official VCT, third-party tournament, challenger, and game changer circuits—paired with live scores, latest news, and latest results, is mostly reliably found on platforms like Strafe.
Catching Up With VODs and Highlights
The best way to keep up with the VCT action is to follow the action live. The official broadcast VALORANT channels on Twitch help with those. The VODs for the games are available on the official Riot channels for the region/sub-region.
Official co-streamers like FNS, Tarik, and Sliggy, etc are a good source for VODs and highlights. Daily VALORANT is another channel that provides the best overall highlight coverage in different regions.
Storylines and Teams to Follow in 2026
With the VCT circuit undergoing a major shake-up in 2027, teams that have come close to an international trophy and yet failed to secure one become some of the intriguing storylines to follow.
G2 Esports is the first team that comes to mind when you think about teams that have yet to secure an international trophy. The North American squad has dominated the Americas since 2025—winning all three regional trophies. They have already secured the Americas Stage 1 title in 2026 and will enter Masters London as one of the favorites. Questions will be asked if the Americas Champions falter at another international tournament.
G2 Esports won their fourth Americas title
Paper Rex—the Pacific Stage 1 Champions—have risen to become one of the most consistent squads when it comes to attending Masters and Champions. Despite coming really close to lifting multiple trophies, the squad has only lifted one. With a Pacific team not yet lifting the Champions trophy, Paper Rex would be the region’s hope for making it possible.
Team Vitality—an EMEA superteam—is another squad to keep an eye on for the rest of the year. With some of the biggest names in European VALORANT on the squad, the team has the star power to win tournaments on individuals alone. Unfortunately, they have yet to show what their ceiling looks like, and seeing it at the upcoming events will be a treat for fans.
Reliable third-party VALORANT esport hubs like Strafe cover more such stories ahead of the big tournaments.
Now, you have everything needed to keep up with VALORANT esports and how to never miss another official.
