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From Last Place in January to World Champions: How LOUD Won VALORANT Champions
LOUD beat Team Vitality 3-1 in the VALORANT Champions Shanghai grand final, came back from 3-9 down on the first map, and became the first organisation to win two Champions titles.
Published Nov. 2, 2026, 06:15 GMT
Last updated: 2 Nov 2026References
The result
At the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai on 18 October, Brazil's LOUD beat Team Vitality 3-1 to win VALORANT Champions 2026 and the $1 million first prize from a $2.25 million pool. Vitality took $400,000. 100 Thieves finished third and G2 fourth.
Map by map
| Map | Score (LOUD first) | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Summit | 13-11 | LOUD trailed 3-9 at half time, then won 10 of the last 12 rounds |
| Lotus | 8-13 | Vitality levelled the series |
| Sunset | 13-5 | LOUD's most one-sided map |
| Haven | 13-10 | The title clincher |
Why this one is special
- LOUD finished last at the Americas Kickoff in January. Ten months later they are world champions.
- They lost 2-0 to the same Vitality side in the group stage.
- LOUD also won Champions in Istanbul in 2022, making them the first organisation with two titles.
- The MVP was erde (Roberto Lobos), an 18-year-old Chilean who is also the team's in-game leader.
What changes next
From 2027, Riot is opening the path to Champions with open qualifiers, so teams outside the partnered leagues get a route in. A new agent, Hush, arrived with patch 13.09 on 27 October, so the competitive meta is already shifting.
Watch the final
We embedded the official match highlights from the VALORANT Champions Tour channel, with a guide to what to look for, in our video breakdown.
How we wrote this: our staff read the reporting listed below, checked the facts against more than one source where possible, and wrote this piece in our own words. Anything not confirmed is labelled. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
