VALORANT Champions 2026 is officially underway in Shanghai, and while the pros are battling it out for the $2.25 million prize pool, players at home have a massive opportunity of their own. Riot Games has packed this year’s tournament with a mountain of free, exclusive cosmetics.
The best part? You don’t need to spend a single VALORANT Point (VP) to get the vast majority of them. From Twitch Drops to the in-game Event Pass and the interactive Shot Call extension, here is your complete step-by-step guide to unlocking every free reward during Champions 2026.
1. Claim Your Twitch & YouTube Broadcast Drops
The easiest way to score free loot is simply by tuning in to the official VCT broadcasts. This year, Riot is offering two exclusive cosmetics for viewers:
- “Stamp of Approval” Spray
- “Prepared” Player Title
How to link your accounts and claim drops:
- Log in to your Riot Games account on the official website.
- Navigate to the Connected Accounts tab in your settings.
- Connect your Twitch or YouTube account to your Riot profile.
- Watch official VALORANT Champions 2026 broadcasts (or co-streams with drops enabled) for the required watch-time milestones.
- Check your Twitch Inventory to manually claim the drops so they appear in your VALORANT client.
2. Complete the Free Champions 2026 Event Pass
Just like previous years, Riot has introduced a free in-game Event Pass dedicated to the Shanghai tournament. You don’t need to do anything special to progress through this pass—just play the game and earn XP!
By completing the Event Pass tiers, you will unlock:
- “Frag or Die: Summit” Player Card
- “Frag or Die: Last Strike” Player Card
- “Instinctual” Player Title
- “Fragment Shell” Gun Buddy
- 20 Radianite Points (RP)
3. Conquer the In-Game “FTW Challenges”
In addition to the standard Event Pass, there is a separate set of in-game missions called the “FTW Challenges.” These challenges will require you to complete specific objectives during your matches, rewarding you with a distinct set of Alpha/Omega themed loot:
- “Frag or Die: Alpha Sage” Player Card
- “Frag or Die: Omega Viper” Player Card
- “Jade and Venom” Player Card
- “Broken” Player Title
- “Official Seal” Spray
4. Interact with the “Shot Call” Twitch Extension
If you are watching the matches on Twitch, make sure you are doing it on a desktop browser to take advantage of the “Shot Call” extension. This interactive overlay allows viewers to make real-time match predictions and answer trivia to score points.
Accumulating points through the Shot Call extension will grant you:
- “Frag or Die: Trophy” Player Card
- “Crab Mentality” Gun Buddy
- “Catch” Player Title
5. Don’t Forget Your Pick’Ems!
As we detailed in our complete Pick’Ems prediction guide, locking in your bracket inside the VALORANT client is the only way to earn this year’s most highly sought-after freebies. Just for participating, you earn the “Calculated” Title, but guessing correctly can net you the premium “Stone of Heaven” Gun Buddy (and the highly exclusive Master variant).
With so much free loot on the table, make sure your accounts are linked, your brackets are locked, and you are grinding out that XP before the grand finals in October!
