Half of the field at VALORANT Champions qualifies through Championship Points. Here is how the system works, how many points each event awards and what changes in 2027.
Every team at VALORANT Champions has earned its place over a full VCT season. Some get there by finishing in the top two of their league’s Stage 2 playoffs, but the rest qualify through Championship Points, a season-long ranking that rewards consistency across every event of the year.
Here is how the system worked in the 2026 season.
How many teams qualify for Champions
Champions has 16 teams, four from each of the four VCT leagues: Americas, EMEA, Pacific and China. In each league:
- Two teams qualify as the winner and runner-up of the Stage 2 playoffs.
- Two teams qualify as the highest-ranked teams in Championship Points that have not already qualified through Stage 2.
Riot’s 2026 rulebook describes it as “the top two teams from the Stage 2 Playoffs and the top two teams in Championship Points”.
How teams earn Championship Points in 2026
Points are awarded at every stage of the season, and the value of each event increases as the year goes on.
| Event | Points for placement |
|---|---|
| Kickoff (per league) | 1st: 4, 2nd: 3, 3rd: 2, 4th: 1 |
| Masters Santiago | 1st: 6, 2nd: 4, 3rd: 3, 4th: 2, 5th-6th: 1 |
| Stage 1 playoffs (per league) | 1st: 6, 2nd: 4, 3rd: 3, 4th: 2 |
| Masters London | 1st: 8, 2nd: 6, 3rd: 5, 4th: 4, 5th-6th: 3 |
| Stage 2 playoffs (per league) | 1st: 8, 2nd: 6, 3rd: 5, 4th: 4 |
On top of the placement points, teams earn one point for every match win in the regular season of Stage 1 and Stage 2.
That means a team can qualify for Champions without winning a trophy. A strong international run at Masters, combined with steady results at home, can be worth more than one good playoff run.
Two of the final four qualified on points
Two of the four teams still alive in Shanghai got there through points. G2 Esports qualified via Championship Points in the Americas and Team Vitality did the same in EMEA, according to Liquipedia.
The full standings for the season are available on Riot’s Championship Points page.
What happens when teams are tied
Riot has not published a specific tiebreaker for equal Championship Points in 2026. In 2025, the Americas used the teams’ head-to-head record across the season, which is how MIBR took the final Champions spot ahead of Cloud9 on equal points.
A new path for Challengers teams in 2026
2026 also introduced a “Path to Champions” for teams outside the partnered leagues. Four Challengers teams per region joined the Stage 2 play-ins against the bottom eight league teams, and the top four from the play-ins advanced to the Stage 2 playoffs. The system replaced Ascension.
What changes in 2027
In April 2026, Riot announced a new tournament-focused model for VCT from 2027:
- Stage 1 and Stage 2 league play are replaced by two Cups per region each season, fed by open qualifiers. The Cups qualify teams directly for Masters and Champions.
- Kickoff stays, with eight partner teams and four teams from open qualifiers in each region.
- Partnerships move to a two-year cycle. Partner teams get a stipend, bonuses and seeding, but no guaranteed spot in the Cups.
- Championship Points continue, and Riot says top non-partnered teams will also be able to collect them.
Riot has not yet published how many points each placement will award in 2027, or how many Champions spots will be decided by points. Read more about the changes in our article on Leo Faria’s VCT restructuring.
