The 2026 season of VALORANT Champions Tour is set to start on January 15, 2026. The new season will, as is the custom, have a new roadmap and multiple changes. One of the major changes is that the playoffs phase of the four regional VCT Stage Two will take place in different venues this year. In a video titled Welcome To Season 2026, VALORANT announced the new locations for the tournament. Let’s take a look at the venues and their importance in VALORANT Esports.
VCT Pacific.
Following VALORANT Champions 2025, VALORANT announced multiple changes to the VCT 2026 roadmap. One of these changes was the new format for the four regional VCT Kickoff tournaments. In 2026, the regional VCT Kickoff tournaments will be a triple-bracket tournament. The top three teams from each regional tournament will qualify for VALORANT Masters Santiago in Chile. Another change was the changes made to VCT Stage Two tournaments in the four leagues.
In 2026, VCT Ascension will be scrapped. Instead, the top teams from the VALORANT Challenger leagues are getting a slot in their regional VCT Stage Two playoffs, thus increasing the importance of the tournament for each region. In the video titled Welcome To Season 2026, VALORANT announced the new locations for each Stage Two tournament. Below is a list of the cities corresponding to the league:
In each VCT League, the Kickoff tournament and Stage One will take place in the same venue as previous seasons. The reason for the change provided by Riot Games is to allow more fans to experience the VALORANT Esports Lan experience.
Back in 2023, São Paulo was the location for the first VALORANT tournament in the VCT Partnership league. This was none other than VALORANT LOCK//IN which consisted of the 40 VCT partnered teams. This tournament set the stage for what is expected from a VCT audience. Since that tournament, we haven’t seen a major VCT international tournament take place in Brazil.
The city of Madrid is remembered by fans due to the VALORANT Masters Madrid tournament back in 2024. In this incredible tournament, we saw the grand finals between Gen G and Sentinels. Sentinels went on to lift the trophy and become the only team until now to win two VALORANT Masters events. Following that season, we saw the likes of Tenz and Sacy retire and become some of the biggest VALORANT streamers.
This will be the first time we see VALORANT tournaments take place in the cities of Busan & Chengdu. Previously, VALORANT announced that VCT CN will take the tournament on the road. Each tournament phase will be hosted in a new city. Until now, cities like Hangzhou, Beijing & Chengdu have been confirmed with VALORANT Champions 2026 taking place in Shanghai. With the tournament taking place in new cities, it will be interesting to note the passion and engagement from fans within these cities.
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