VCT China record worst ever international performance at VALORANT Champions 2026 Shanghai

It’s a disastrous end to VALORANT Champions 2026 Shanghai for VCT China. The four teams representing the region on their home turf failed to win a single series and only managed to win a total of 2 out of 18 maps. An embarrassment is an understatement for the performance VCT China was able to deliver at this event.

The stranger thing about this result is the fact that VCT China has been somewhat of a competitive region in the past, despite being seen as the weakest region by many. They regularly took maps, caused upsets, made deep runs at multiple events, and even won Champions in 2024 thanks to EDward Gaming.

Shanghai might truly be a cursed venue for the region. Another event where VCT China was completely blown out of the water, funnily enough, was VCT Masters Shanghai 2024. In that tournament, VCT China only managed to win one match, thanks to FunPlus Phoenix defeating FUT Esports. In fact, FPX were the only team to win maps, as they won all 4 maps for VCT China at the event, with EDG and Dragon Ranger Gaming going winless, bringing the total record to 4-13. FPX also had the unfortunate fate of facing both grand finalists, Team Heretics and Gen.G, back-to-back in the Swiss Stage, which ended up eliminating them.

At Champions 2025, only XLG Esports managed to win a single series. The VCT China teams went 1-8 in match record and 4-17 in map record. The previous and current editions of Champions haven’t been kind to China, with the latter being the region’s worst-ever performance at an international event. The even worse part is that there isn’t any other region that has performed badly on multiple occasions compared to China. This is a really bad sign for the region heading into a revamped system for VCT 2027.

The possibility of an underperformance of this magnitude happening again for VCT China is not out of the question. The teams at this event looked completely outclassed in terms of gameplans, map pool depth, protocols, and teamfight fundamentals. There were flashes of brilliance from teams like XLG Esports and JD Gaming, but their inconsistencies and weak mentalities are big issues to be addressed, as mentioned by JD Gaming’s IGL Chang “BerLIN” Po-Lin in an interview with Sheep Esports.

The mechanics and aim of the players in VCT China are definitely at the level of all the other regions, if not better, as mentioned by other pro players like Nongshim RedForce’s Goo “Rb” Sang-min. However, their understanding of the macro is not at the level of the other three regions, which often hampers them and doesn’t allow their mechanics and aim to shine. With improved coaching and rigorous training of fundamentals and strats, there is a very real chance to see VCT China shine again and prove themselves worthy of playing among the very best in VALORANT.