In just a few days, the most prestigious tournament of the year, VALORANT Champions 2026, will kick off in Shanghai. The 16 best teams in the world will compete for the trophy. However, this season has been marked by highly unexpected results: a number of historic leaders and giants failed to qualify for the main event, giving way to more consistent competitors.
Among the unexpected downfalls of this year's favorites, Leviatán stands out above all. The Masters London winners are currently considered the best team to be left out of the tournament. The Argentine squad finished 5th-6th in VCT Americas Stage 2, and although only five teams in the world accumulated more Championship Points, this was not enough to qualify. However, the biggest shock was the absence of Fnatic. The multiple-time EMEA champions and finalists of last year's tournament will miss the final event for the first time since the competition's inception. After a chaotic year without a single international appearance, this marks the first such failure in the careers of the club's iconic players, Jake "Boaster" Howlett and Emir "Alfajer" Beder.
The trend of missed opportunities in the regional leagues also affected the Spanish club Team Heretics, who will miss Champions for the first time since 2023. The team had a brilliant start to the season, winning VCT EMEA Stage 1, but failed to capitalize on this success, being eliminated in the Play-Ins stage despite accumulating a significant number of points. In the Americas region, Sentinels had an outright disastrous season. Last year's regulars at international competitions failed to make it to the VCT Americas playoffs even once this season. The bitterness is compounded by the fact that former players of the club—Sean "bang" Bezerra and Marshall "N4RRATE" Massey—successfully qualified for Champions with their new teams.
Against the backdrop of Western failures, the stagnation of Asian giants is also clearly visible. The Korean squad DRX, a constant participant in all previous tournaments and last year's bronze medalist, is left on the sidelines for the first time in their history. Spending the entire season in the middle of the standings, they denied Kim "MaKo" Myeong-kwan the chance to compete at the world championship for the first time in his career. Gen.G Esports will also miss the tournament for the second consecutive year. After reaching their peak in 2024, the team gradually lost ground. Even a direct advance to the playoffs following a strong group stage in Stage 2 did not help—the roster lacked the stability at the end of the season to edge out their competitors.
As a reminder, FUT Close in on SunPayus Signing: Spanish AWPer to Replace cmtry
