VCT Americas Kickoff 2026: Format, Dates, Teams — Everything You Need to Know

The VALORANT Champions Tour Americas is back for a brand-new 2026 season. Twelve teams, including one new organization, will compete this year with the goal of qualifying for Masters Santiago, the first international event of the season.

While there will be no trophy awarded for this tournament, that won’t stop teams from battling to establish themselves as the best in the region, especially with the introduction of a completely new format.

The new format makes up for it by giving teams the opportunity to play more matches in this opening tournament. The competition will use a triple-elimination bracket, with most matches played as best-of-three (BO3). Only the finals of each bracket will be played as best-of-five (BO5).

The four teams that competed at Champions Paris are directly qualified for Round 2 of the upper bracket, while the remaining eight teams will face off to join them. The match order has already been announced. The tournament will run for a full month, from January 15 to February 15.

The three teams that finish at the top of each bracket will qualify for Masters Santiago, where they will face the best teams from other regions in the race for the first international trophy of the season.

Twelve teams will take part in the competition, the same number as last season. Among them are the reigning world champions NRG, as well as a new lineup qualified through Ascension: ENVY, who will replace 2GAME Esports.

Partner teams: LOUD, Sentinels, NRG, MIBR, Leviatán, KRÜ Esports, FURIA, Evil Geniuses, 100 Thieves, Cloud9

Ascension-qualified teams: G2 Esports, ENVY

Every team has made at least one roster change, including NRG with the arrival of Georgio "keiko" Sanassy. Other teams such as MIBR and Sentinels have significantly strengthened their lineups and will be looking to dethrone the reigning world champions.

Matches will generally begin at 5:00 p.m. EST starting January 15. There will be three official broadcasts available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, streaming on both Twitch and YouTube. A list of approved co-streamers has not yet been announced, but it will allow creators from different communities around the world to cover the event and bring the competition to an even wider audience.