LOUD Beat Team Vitality 3-1 to Win VALORANT Champions 2026 in Shanghai

LOUD are VALORANT world champions for the second time after a 3-1 win over Team Vitality in the VALORANT Champions 2026 Grand Final at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai on Sunday, October 18. The Brazilian organization becomes the first to win the world title twice, four years after their first crown at Champions 2022 in Istanbul, Türkiye, and pockets the $1 million top prize out of a $2.25 million prize pool.

Vitality settle for second place and $400,000. The EMEA squad were chasing their first-ever Champions title after finishing as runners-up to EDward Gaming at Champions 2024. LOUD, the second-seeded Americas team coming in, had lost to Vitality twice earlier in the tournament: once in the Group B Winners Match and once in the Upper Bracket Final, before flipping the script when it mattered.

What happened on the server

The Grand Final kicked off with LOUD edging Vitality 13-11 on Summit, with Vitality answering on Lotus to tie the series 13-8. The pivotal third map at Sunset saw LOUD run away with it 13-5, and they closed the championship on Haven 13-10.

LOUD captain Roberto “erde” Lobos was named tournament MVP for his leadership across the run, and dedicated the win to his late mother, who passed away two days before LOUD’s first match of the tournament.

How they got here

LOUD entered the tournament as the second seed for the Americas and started in Group B alongside Vitality. After losing to Vitality in the Group B Winners Match, LOUD bounced back through the Decider to make the playoffs, swept Paper Rex in the Upper Quarterfinals, beat defending champion NRG 2-1 in the Upper Semifinals, then reverse-swept the same Vitality squad 2-1 in the Upper Bracket Final to claim the first Grand Final berth.

Vitality’s path was the upper-bracket grind. They topped Group B with their opening win over LOUD, beat Nongshim RedForce 2-1 in the Upper QF, swept G2 Esports in the Upper Semifinals, lost to LOUD in the Upper Bracket Final, then punched their Grand Final ticket with a 3-1 win over 100 Thieves in the Lower Bracket Final on Saturday.

Where VCT goes from here

The 2026 season wraps up here. Riot Games already announced VCT 2027: The Global Tour on October 15, with more international stops, more regional leagues, and a new format that takes the Champions Tour on the road for the first time. The next international event kicks off in early 2027.

LOUD’s run is the rare double that ties the world-title knot. Americas teams have now won three of the last four Champions events, with NRG taking the 2025 title and EDward Gaming the 2024 crown, and EMEA has had to settle for second place twice in a row after Karmine Corp’s 2025 Grand Final loss to NRG. Vitality’s runner-up finish is a real result, but it is also the third straight year an EMEA team has finished second at Champions. For Brazil, the second LOUD title is the largest international esports trophy the country has produced in 2026.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report