VCT Americas Kickoff 2026 will happen from January Fifteenth to February Fifteenth, marking the area’s first esports occasion within the 2026 VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT).
Along with that includes Kickoff’s new triple-elimination format, the event will provide its 12 groups the prospect to qualify for Masters Santiago, the primary international VCT occasion of the season.
VCT Americas is a part of Riot Video games’ semi-franchised tier-one VALORANT Champions Tour, which encompasses three extra areas: EMEA, Pacific and China.
Each VCT season includes three regional competitions, Kickoff, Stage 1 and Stage 2, in addition to three worldwide occasions, two Masters and the season-ending VALORANT Champions event.
Subsequent yr, these three international competitions will happen in February (Masters Santiago), June (Masters London) and October (Champions Shanghai).
VCT Americas Kickoff 2026: Format
Identical to all different areas, VCT Americas could have a triple-elimination format for its 2026 Kickoff occasion.
To accommodate the brand new format, VCT Kickoff will even function three best-of-five (BO5) finals for the higher, center and decrease brackets, respectively. All different matches might be performed as best-of-threes (BO3s).
The three rising winners will then symbolize the area at Masters Santiago from February twenty eighth till March Fifteenth.
As well as, the highest Kickoff groups will earn Americas Factors, which can grant qualification to VALORANT Champions in a while:
- Winner: 4 factors
- 2nd place: 3 factors
- third place: 2 factors
- 4th place: 1 level
VCT Americas Kickoff 2026: Schedule
Americas Kickoff 2026 will run throughout 5 weeks, with every match day commencing at 10 PM BST.
As regional representatives throughout Champions 2025, NRG, MIBR, Sentinels and G2 Esports have acquired a direct bye into Spherical 2 of the higher bracket.
The remaining groups have been positioned into Spherical 1 match-ups primarily based on a randomised draw:
| February Fifteenth | ENVY vs. Evil Geniuses | LOUD vs. Cloud 9 |
| February sixteenth | KRÜ Esports vs. FURIA | 100 Thieves vs. Leviatán |
The three finals will happen throughout Week 5 (February Thirteenth-Fifteenth) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
To witness the motion reside in Los Angeles’ Riot Video games Enviornment, followers should buy tickets. The ticket sale will begin on December nineteenth at 8 PM BST.
VCT Americas Kickoff 2026: Groups
Among the many twelve groups competing in VCT Americas Kickoff, 10 are companion groups with everlasting slots within the league till 2027. This additionally consists of VALORANT Champions 2025 winner, NRG.
The ultimate two groups are Ascension 2023 and 2025 champions, G2 Esports and ENVY. For the latter, this would be the first-ever season in VALORANT tier-one.
Right here is the total checklist of VCT Americas 2026 groups:
- 100 Thieves
- Cloud 9
- Evil Geniuses
- FURIA
- KRÜ Esports
- Leviatán
- LOUD
- MIBR
- NRG
- Sentinels
- G2 Esports
- ENVY
