LOUD beat Team Vitality 3-1 in Shanghai on Sunday to win VALORANT Champions for a second time, four years after their first title and with a lineup that was only completed in July. erde was named MVP.
LOUD are the first organisation to win VALORANT Champions twice. They beat Team Vitality 3-1 in the grand final at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai on Sunday and take home $1,000,000 of the $2,250,000 prize pool.
The first five editions of Champions had produced five different winners, and LOUD’s 2022 title in Istanbul was the only one any of this year’s final four had to their name. As Pley wrote before the final weekend, none of the players from that 2022 lineup are still on the team. The organisation now has two world titles, but for erde, lukxo, tkzin, Darker and DaviH it is the first.
From the bottom of the Americas to world champions
The second title came at the end of a long dip. After winning in 2022, LOUD finished third at Champions 2023 and fourth at Masters Madrid in 2024, but missed Champions in both 2024 and 2025. In 2025 they finished 11th-12th in both Americas stages.
The start of 2026 was not much better. LOUD finished 11th-12th at the Americas Kickoff and 7th-8th in Americas Stage 1, and went out of the Esports World Cup Americas qualifier in fourth place. They did not reach either Masters event.
The current roster was built piece by piece over the same period:
lukxo joined in January 2025 as a sixth man from Galorys
Darker arrived in December 2025 from E-Xolos LAZER in the Latin American Challengers scene
erde joined in March 2026 from LEVIATÁN Academy
DaviH and tkzin completed the lineup in July 2026, DaviH from the German-speaking Challengers team CGN Esports and tkzin on loan from KRÜ’s academy team KRÜ SPARK
With that five-man lineup, LOUD reached the final of Americas Stage 2 and finished second, which sent them to Shanghai. The team that won the world title had played together for around three months.
The grand final
LOUD won their own pick, Summit, 13-11, before Vitality levelled the series with a 13-8 win on Lotus. LOUD took Sunset 13-5 and closed out the title on Vitality’s pick, Haven, 13-10.
LOUD3-1
Team VitalityStatsSummit 13-11, Lotus 8-13, Sunset 13-5, Haven 13-10
| LOUD | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tkzin | 77-66 | +11 | 163 | 64% |
| erde | 66-56 | +10 | 152 | 72% |
| lukxo | 59-56 | +3 | 118 | 67% |
| DaviH | 52-52 | 0 | 116 | 69% |
| Darker | 54-58 | -4 | 119 | 72% |
| Team Vitality | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sayonara | 63-59 | +4 | 129 | 66% |
 Derke | 63-65 | -2 | 125 | 62% |
| Jamppi | 58-61 | -3 | 123 | 67% |
 Chronicle | 56-62 | -6 | 134 | 62% |
 PROFEK | 48-61 | -13 | 111 | 70% |
erde named MVP
erde was named MVP of the event. The Chilean, who played Sage and Omen in the final, finished the series with a +10 kill difference, second only to tkzin (+11), and 72% KAST. His best maps were Summit (19-16, 1.31 rating) and the title-winning Haven, where he had 21 kills and 189 average damage per round.
Across the whole event, erde finished with a 1.21 rating and 77% KAST over 18 maps, second only to his teammate lukxo (1.22) among players with at least 150 rounds, according to VLR. He also had 158 assists, by far the most on LOUD. Seven months earlier he was playing in the Latin American Challengers circuit.
tkzin takes over Sunset
The map that broke Vitality was Sunset. With the series at 1-1, tkzin went 26-10 on Neon with a 1.99 rating, 385 average combat score and 250 average damage per round, and Vitality won only five rounds. Jamppi finished the map on 6-16.
tkzin ended the final with 77 kills, the most of any player, and 18 first kills, also the most on the server. Until July he was playing for KRÜ SPARK in the Latin American Challengers circuit, and he joined LOUD on loan.
LOUD’s road to the title
LOUD lost only one series in Shanghai, the group stage match against Vitality. They then beat Paper Rex, the defending champions NRG and Vitality in the upper bracket, and beat Vitality again in the grand final.
LOUD2-0
EDward GamingGroup B, opening match: Lotus 13-8, Summit 13-5Team Vitality2-0LOUDGroup B, winners’ match: Ascent 13-7, Summit 19-17LOUD2-0
Global EsportsGroup B, decider: Split 13-8, Sunset 13-9LOUD2-0
Paper RexUpper quarter-final: Split 13-9, Sunset 15-13LOUD2-1
NRGUpper semi-final: Haven 13-9, Sunset 10-13, Summit 13-3LOUD2-1Team VitalityUpper final: Lotus 8-13, Summit 13-5, Haven 13-11Vitality reached the grand final through the lower bracket. After losing the upper final to LOUD on Friday, they beat 100 Thieves 3-1 in Saturday’s lower final.
For Chronicle, the defeat was another painful one. He lost the 2021 final with Gambit Esports and the 2025 final with Fnatic, and has now lost three Champions finals. Vitality, who had never been past 9th-12th at Champions before this year, finish second and take $400,000.
Every Valorant Champions winner
| Year | Host city | Winner | Grand final |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 |  Berlin |  Acend | 3-2 vs  Gambit Esports |
| 2022 |  Istanbul | LOUD | 3-1 vs  OpTic Gaming |
| 2023 |  Los Angeles |  Evil Geniuses | 3-1 vs Paper Rex |
| 2024 |  Seoul | EDward Gaming | 3-2 vs  Team Heretics |
| 2025 |  Paris | NRG | 3-2 vs  Fnatic |
| 2026 |  Shanghai | LOUD | 3-1 vs Team Vitality |
Both of LOUD’s titles came with a 3-1 win in the final. The full history of the event is in our list of every Valorant Champions winner.
A record audience
The final was also the most-watched Valorant match of 2026. It peaked at almost 1.5 million viewers, excluding Chinese platforms, according to Esports Charts. The figures are covered in our viewership story.
LOUD’s own reaction leaned on what the title means in Brazil. The organisation described itself as “bicampeões mundiais”, two-time world champions.
What comes next
Shanghai was the last event of the current VCT format. From 2027, the VCT becomes a tournament-based circuit with open qualifiers, ending with Champions 2027 in Austin, where LOUD will start as the only two-time world champions.
