Book your calendar for 26 November–12 December and set alarms for 09:00 CET; every best-of-three starts on the dot, and Riot broadcast delay last year averaged only 4 minutes. Watch the opening double-elimination group stage on the main valorantesports.com stream, then switch to the secondary YouTube feed during overlap days–both run 1080p60 with 320 kbps crowd mics, so you catch spike plants and arena roars without spoilers.
EDG, FNATIC, LOUD, and Sentinels secured direct seeds by winning the four Masters trophies; the other twelve slots came from circuit points, not regional finals, so expect KRÜ, Paper Rex, DRX, and ZETA to arrive battle-hardened. Each team must submit a five-player core plus one substitute by 1 November, and the new Champions-only patch (7.12) locks agent pools, meaning no post-season buffs or nerfs–practice servers go live on 10 October for precise replication.
Group draw drops live on 3 November at 17:00 KST; the algorithm keeps teams from the same league apart in round one, so you will not see two EMEA squads collide until the decider bracket. Tickets for the Accor Arena in Paris release in two waves: 15,000 three-day passes at €89 on 5 September, then single-day seats at €34 on 12 September–last year they sold out in 28 minutes, so preload your payment method and refresh at 18:00 sharp.
Pick’Em brackets lock when the first pistol round fires; last year the perfect prediction paid 50,000 VP, enough for every Champions 2026 skin bundle plus the next two Acts. If you plan to queue ranked during the event, expect 40 % longer queue times in EU West–pros are scrimming on local accounts, so flex queue after 23:00 to dodge the congestion.
Match Calendar & Viewing Guide
Set three alarms: the first best-of-three starts at 09:00 CEST on 2 September, and every subsequent wave fires two hours after the previous series ends. Riot official site pushes the bracket in real time, but the #VCT26 Twitter list compiles player scrim rumors 30-40 min before the pick-ban screen, letting you hedge Pick’Em tokens before odds shift.
Group stage runs 2-7 Sep with two simultaneous streams; Alpha covers the upper-seed track on Twitch while Beta shadows potential upset candidates on YouTube. Knockouts swap to a single broadcast from 9 Sep, and the grand final fires at 18:00 CEST on 13 Sep in the Festhalle Frankfurt–tickets dropped at €38 and sold out in 11 min, so secondary market prices hover near €130. If you’re in the Americas, the 12-hour gap means most weekday matches begin at 03:00 PT; mute the cast, load the /r/Valorant live thread, and scrub VODs at 1.25× speed to dodge spoilers.
Watch parties carry drops: average of 3.2 Radianite Points per hour on Tarik channel and 1.6 on Kyedae, with bonus 100 VP shards every four hours on the official VCT channel. Disable HTML5 autoplay on mobile to prevent stream hiccups, and keep the LoL Esports app open for push alerts–roster substitutions arrive there 4-6 min faster than on the broadcast overlay. If you collect player POVs, bookmark the observer-utils GitHub; the repo releases minimap overlays 15 min post-match, perfect for clipping trade sequences without caster audio.
Convert Seoul Time to Your Zone in 3 Clicks
Open the schedule page on valorantesports.com, click the clock icon beside any match, and pick your city from the drop-down–your bracket instantly flips to local time and saves the choice in a cookie for every return visit.
No clock icon? Tap the match row once, hit the three-dot menu in the pop-up overlay, and select "Convert time zone"; the page reloads with every fixture labeled in your zone without signing in.
If you’re on mobile, pull down the notification panel, long-press the system clock widget, and type "Seoul"; the widget shows the 9-hour gap to CET or the 13-hour jump to PST so you can read the schedule offline while commuting.
Bookmark time.is/Seoul and add "?q=pc" to the URL; the site auto-detects your location, highlights Champions broadcast windows in green, and fires a browser alert five minutes before each opening whistle.
Drop-Map: When to Catch Your Main Squad on Stage
Lock Sunday 26 July, 14:30 CEST, into your phone–Fnatic open Group A on the Alpha stream and every analyst expects Derke to run a fast Breeze. Set a second alarm for 16:45; Paper Rex face DRX right after, and something chaotic always happens when both teams hit Lotus.
Group B swings into view Tuesday 28 July. Sentinels play at 11:00 CEST sharp; TenZ has a 73 % first-kill rate on Bind during morning slots, so skip the coffee queue and be in your seat by 10:50. If you support EDG, their match follows at 13:15–expect a 45-minute tech pause; bring a power bank.
The double-elim bracket starts 2 August. Upper semis land on the weekend, but the lower bracket runs Monday 3 Aug, 09:00 CEST. Tickets cost half price, crowd noise is lower, and you can hear comms leak from the analyst desk between rounds–perfect for content creators who bring a shotgun mic.
Want autographs? Teams exit the stage left tunnel within seven minutes of a loss. Wait by the production trucks opposite Gate C; FNC and PRX always stop, but only if you have a silver Sharpie–black markers get rejected by security. Bring two sleeves; Boaster signs both.
Watch parties fill the fan zone every evening. The Berlin venue places a 400-watt PK Sound array above the food court; you’ll hear casters echo 0.3 s late, so sync your phone to the Twitch low-latency feed and share a single AirPod with a friend to avoid the delay clash.
Grand final week adds a second warmup stage. Arrive 90 minutes early on 9 August; teams scrim three casual rounds there, and Jinggg pulled out a knife-only ace last year. Capture the clip, tag the player within 30 seconds, and you’ll probably snag a retweet before the arena lights dim.
VOD Links Posted Within 5 Minutes After Each Map
Bookmark the official Valorant Champions YouTube playlist and turn on mobile notifications; every map replay lands there in 1080p60 within five minutes of the "DEFEAT" screen, tagged by round so you can scrub straight to the 1 v 3 eco-clutch on Bind without spoiling the next game. Copy the URL, append "&t=8m32s" to share an exact round-start timestamp on Reddit or Discord; the link auto-syncs across desktop, iOS and Android, sparing teammates from blurry phone-recorded clips.
If the main channel hiccups during peak traffic, pivot to the Spanish, Korean or French co-streams–they upload identical replays with independent encoding, usually beating the English feed by 30–40 seconds. Pair these links with the free Chrome add-on "ChampReplay"; it auto-downloads the .mp4 and drops a 20 MB file into a local folder labeled by map, scoreline and MVP so you can build a personal highlight reel before the next pistol round begins.
Qualified Squads & Win-Condition Cheatsheet
Lock Phoenix, Sage and Omen on Ascent and you’ve already copied the core of Paper Rex 14-round attack streak versus DRX; add something as tiny as f0rsakeN 1.2-second pre-round flash timing for the A-main walkout and you replicate the exact corridor of free space that gave them the 13-5 blow-out.
EDG only qualify if ZmjjKK Operator hits 1.45 KPR; on Breeze he parks the 0.73-second grapple from A-crate to A-site heaven, one-taps the mid orb, then swings back to cover drop. Counter it by forcing him into Viper pit: bait the shot with a double-swing, trade, and the round economy tilts 1,800 credits in your favour.
| Team | Must-Have Map | Key Timing | Counter Agent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper Rex | Ascent | 1.2 s flash | Kay/O |
| EDG | Breeze | 0.73 s grapple | Viper |
| FNC | Bind | 0.9 s tp fake | Sova |
| NRG | Fracture | 2.1 s zip | Cypher |
FNATIC survive group D by hiding Derke Chamber on Bind long-B; he shoulder-peeks the teleporter at 0.9 seconds, baits the Op shot, then instant-teleports back for the re-peek. Deny the angle with a Sova drone pre-spot and the strat folds–Derke rating drops from 312 to 217 ACS and the map swings 8-4 to 5-7.
NRG do-or-die lives on a single Fracture playbook: crash A-main at 2.1 seconds into the round using SoaR zip-line boost, trade one, then sprint back through A-dish for the 3-man retake. Counter by parking Cypher cage on the zip exit; the 0.4-second slow neuters the timing and lets you swing with a Judge for 3K credit swing plus ultimate orbs.
Seed 1-4 Path: Who Dodges the Group of Death
Lock Fnatic, EDward Gaming, Paper Rex and Sentinels into Pot 1 before you even open the bracket simulator; their 2025 Circuit Points totals guarantee the four highest seeds, so every other hopeful prays the draw spits them into Pool D where only one of those titans can lurk.
Pot 2 holds the landmines: DRX, Leviatán, Karmine Corp and the surprise KR representative, TNL Esports. Each owns a distinct one-map assassin–DRX Bind, Leviatán Lotus, KC Haven, TNL Abyss–so Pot 1 sides avoid them not by reputation but by recent head-to-head:
- Fnatic 5-0 vs DRX since Kickoff 2025, so they breathe easy.
- Paper Rex 1-3 vs Leviatán, so they swap scrim time to counter Lotus strats.
- Sentinels 0-2 vs KC, yet their Haven rework bans Viper, forcing KC onto Split where TenZ averages 289 ACS.
- EDG 4-1 vs TNL, but TNL Abyss pocket pick shaved 6 rounds off EDG last month; EDG prep one anti-Abyss comp with Sage-Breach instead of Harbor.
If you land in Pot 3, your survival hinges on map trade-offs: Giants slot into any pool lacking DRX because their triple-initiator comp counters DRX passive setups; meanwhile Talon Esports angle for Pool B where Paper Rex scrappy tempo clashes with Talon slow 3-site holds, historically dragging PRX into overtime and sapping Zheng star rifles.
Run the Monte Carlo script ten thousand times and Pool C emerges as the nightmare: Fnatic, Leviatán, FUT, and the emerging CN squad Dragon Rangers. Each team posts ≥60% win rate on separate maps–Fnatic on Ascent, Leviatán on Lotus, FUT on Sunset, DR on Icebox–so every best-of-three hits a map coin-flip. Pot 4 minnows face a 17% escape probability from that pool; bet your pick’em coins elsewhere.
Agent Pool Depth Chart for All 16 Rosters
Pick three flex-ready agents for every role and you'll instantly see which squads can swap comps mid-series without bleeding rounds. Paper Rex runs something close to 90 % of the pool: f0rsakeN mains Omen, Breach, Cypher, Yoru; something rotates through Killjoy, Viper, Skye; d4v41 locks Astra, Jett, Raze; mindfreak covers Sage, Omen, Sova; Jinggg spans Phoenix, Raze, Reyna. That five-man covers 21 agents at tier-1 comfort; no other roster tops 17.
DRX's depth chart looks thinner on paper, but their coaching tree exploits agent adjacency:
- Buzz (Jett, Raze, Neon) forces double-duelist maps.
- MaKo (Viper, Astra, Harbor) triple-layers smokes.
- FOX (Cypher, Killjoy, Sage) flips sentinel sites.
- Rb (Sage, Breach, Kay/O) lets them run no-smoke comps on Lotus.
- Stax (Sova, Fade, Skye) keeps initiator economy stable.
- ScreaM (Jett, Reyna, Phoenix) only.
- Amilwa (Omen, Brim) only.
- Keiko (Breach, Skye) only.
Keep an eye on Talon; they've built the deepest initiator stable–Ban (Sova, Fade, Gekko, Kay/O), Crws (Skye, Breach, Fade), and governor (Breach, Gekko, Sova) overlap on four picks. That trio can chain utility for 32 straight rounds without recycling a cooldown. If group stages force best-of-three on patch 8.11, the steeper Gekko buff means Talon gains 4-6 free ult orbs per map; that's the hidden edge that moved them from fringe to dark-horse in most bookmakers' boards. For context on how fine margins swing events, check how Brighton lost one-win-in-thirteen by botching small edges: https://likesport.biz/articles/brighton-stuck-in-finemargin-rut-1-win-in-13.html. Apply the same lens here: Talon's orb edge equates to one bonus ult every four rounds–enough to flip a 13-11 into a 13-8 on Ascent.
Q&A:
Which new teams qualified for Champions 2026 and why should I care about them?
The freshest blood is the Chinese squad Furyion, who bulldozed through the Ascension league with a 12-0 map streak, and the Japanese org Absolute Zero, built around the ex-ZETA prodigy "Reita." Both play hyper-aggressive double-duelist setups that punish slow defaults. If you like 90-second rounds and non-stop site contact, their group-stage games are must-watch.
How does the Swiss stage work this year compared to last?
Still five rounds, but now every match is best-of-three and the highest seed always picks the third map from the remaining pool, so no replayed maps. Win three before you lose three and you’re through; 3-2 teams are re-seeded by opponent win-rate instead of round differential, which keeps every round relevant until the final fixture.
Where can I catch the English broadcast if I’m in APAC time zones and don’t want spoilers?
Riot runs two clean feeds: the global Twitch channel uploads VODs immediately after each block, and there an unspoiled playlist on YouTube sorted by day. Both have chapters, so you can jump straight to the map you missed without seeing the scoreboard.
Who has the easiest road to playoffs on paper?
Group C: Paper Rex, Karmine Corp, Talon, and the LATAM qualifier. PRX avoids both Fnatic and EDG until the single-elim bracket, and the other three teams all prefer the same three maps PRX permabans, so map pool pressure is minimal. Anything less than a 2-0 start would be a shock.
What happens if a player tests positive for COVID mid-tournament?
Same protocol as LOCK//IN: isolated booth on stage, voice comms through a sanitized headset, and the team gets a 10-minute technical timeout each map for equipment resets. Subs fly in within 24 h if the coach files a medical exemption; no replay of previous rounds, but future opponents can opt for a 24-hour schedule shift once per stage.
Reviews
Charlotte Wilson
Another year, another billion-dollar skin sale disguised as a sport. Sixty-four boys and their RGB chairs fly to Reykjavík, convinced the pixel trophy will patch the hole where their self-esteem leaks. Same dusty cast: cocky Koreans who can’t buy a legal drink, Brazilians who treat every duel like a samba funeral, and NA "prodigies" paid six figures to whiff sprays my gold-rank niece would hit. Schedule? Three weeks of staggered commercials, tech pauses longer than the rounds, and casters screaming "WHAT A PLAY" when someone presses Q. Pick your bracket: whoever Riot buffed last patch wins, losers cry on stream for clipped sympathy, and the rest of us farm beta keys we’ll scalp on Discord. Heroes come, heroes go; my rent stays the same.
CobaltWraith
Blonde roots, broken heart. Watched Berlin bleed out, now Seoul neon feels like a morgue. Same jerseys, new patches, same me still silver, still sobbing into protein shakes. My Jett dash ends at the fridge; Champions ends wherever I’m not. Schedule a ransom note: every match steals another hour I’ll never bench-press back. Teams? Skins with voices. I queue solo, die solo, wake up with collarbone tanlines and her lipstick on my hoodie. Crown heavy; so is the duvet.
LilyBreeze
i’m already clutching my pearls leviantan new fade setups are filthy, and g2 queen of site retakes just landed a 4k with a sheriff and a smirk. booked my red-eye to spades stadium after scanning the brackets; if paper rex doesn’t ban breeze i’ll personally tattoo "zombs was right" on my ankle. see you in finals, i’ll be the one waving a neon sign that says "drop me a vandal, boys."
Ethan Mercer
Mate, you list every skin price like my ex listed my flaws obsessively yet skip why Riot still sells 2024 champs spray for 2026 show; does your paycheck scale with the bullet spread, or is "preview" journo-latin for "press copy, paste, pray"?
Owen Stryker
yo, 2026 champs? bro, i watch pixels bleed and think: same guts, new skin. ten dudes click heads, crowd screams like it church. my brain says "just a game" but my chest howls ancient war drums. schedule drops, flags wave, i feel 8 years old again, clutching plastic rifles in dirt. win or lose, pixels stay lit, we still gotta pay rent.
NoraDream
So the pixelated circus rolls back into town, pink bunny hoodies and neon rifles slapped over the same five tired faces. I’ll brew coffee strong enough to strip varnish, park my claws on the VOD button, and watch boys who still need mom permission to stay up past eleven pretend they’re gladiators. Schedule? A polite fiction; matches slip like cheap lip gloss, but the memes run on time. Teams? Same orgs, new hair dye, still allergic to planting the spike. Wake me if someone invents a strat more complex than "rush B and scream."