Game Changers Championship 2026: Americas and four paths to the same crown

The VALORANT Game Changers Championship 2026 starts on Thursday, October 22, in São Paulo, with ten teams from six regions competing for a $500,000 prize pool, $180,000 of it for the winner. The tournament runs through November 1 in a double-elimination bracket, with best-of-three series everywhere except the lower final and the grand final, which are best-of-five.

The Americas do not form a single region in Game Changers, as the circuit is split into North America, LATAM and Brazil, but together they send four of the ten qualified teams: Team Liquid Brazil, Shopify Rebellion Gold, KRÜ Blaze and MIBR GC. The delegation arrives with the defending champions, a two-time winner, a LATAM champion and a team that needed the LCQ to get there. It is also the last standalone edition of the event, since Game Changers Championship will conclude alongside Champions in Austin in 2027.

Team Liquid Brazil arrive as the best-placed team of the delegation. The roster that beat Shopify Rebellion Gold 3-2 in Seoul last year remains intact. This time, the final will be played in front of their home crowd.

Their route was not entirely smooth. Team Liquid Brazil won Brazil Kickoff and Stage 1, both against MIBR GC, but lost Stage 2 to their rivals. In the Final Stage, they beat MIBR GC 2-1 in the upper final and then defeated Evil Geniuses GC 3-1 in the grand final, with Joojina named MVP of the series. The team opens against Gentle Mates GC on October 23.

No team has more titles in the event than Shopify Rebellion Gold. The roster won the Championship in 2023, beating Team Liquid Brazil 3-2 in the final, and again in 2024, sweeping MIBR GC. Last year, in Seoul, they lost a five-game final to Team Liquid Brazil, which denied them a third trophy in a row.

The North American team arrives with a partly new lineup, with two players who joined in July. The results came quickly, as Shopify Rebellion Gold won North America Stage 2, beating FlyQuest RED 3-1 in the grand final, a series in which Nicole "Noia" Tierce did not play and stand-in Sarah "sarahcat" Simpson took the spot. The team plays on October 24 against the winner of SK Nebula and Nova Esports GC.

KRÜ Blaze are the LATAM representatives. The path to São Paulo came through the south of the region first, where the team won the LATAM South Main Event, and then beat Akave Esports Black, the North champions, 3-1 in the Regional Final on September 13.

It is the organization’s third appearance at the Championship, after 2024 and 2025. The roster was rebuilt in January and changed again in May, when two players moved to inactive status and a new one joined. Their first match is against Gen.G GC on October 23.

MIBR GC did not qualify directly, but their run to São Paulo was one of the most dramatic of the qualifying stage. After losing to FlyQuest RED in the Americas Last Chance Qualifier group stage and beating Akave Esports Black, the Brazilian roster faced FlyQuest RED again in the grand final and won 3-2 in a best-of-five series. It was the team’s way back after finishing third in the Brazil Final Stage, having been Stage 2 champions.

MIBR GC were the 2024 runners-up, losing the final to Shopify Rebellion Gold. The team plays first against FENNEL GC on October 22, and the winner will face G2 Gozen on October 24.

The last time the Championship came to São Paulo was in 2023, and it ended with Team Liquid losing a five-map grand final to Shopify Rebellion. Brazil had a team in front of its own crowd, and still North America took the trophy. Two years later, in Seoul, Team Liquid Brazil handed Shopify their first loss in Championship since that game, in an upper final that went to overtime on the first map, and then beat them 3-2 in the grand final. Now, they return to the city where this rivalry started.

Shopify has not missed a final since 2023. They won in São Paulo in 2023, won again in 2024 and lost to Team Liquid in 2025. Despite recent roster changes, the North American team is looking to prove itself and secure its fourth consecutive final in the same city where it won its first world title.

MIBR GC have spent those years close to the same trophy. They lost the 2024 final to Shopify, then lost to them twice more in 2025, 2-0 in the upper quarterfinals and 3-1 in the lower final, which left them third.

KRÜ Blaze were in the 2023 field in São Paulo too. Their 2025 team finished fourth, losing to Team Liquid Brazil in their opener and to MIBR GC in the lower bracket, and of that roster only micaela remains.