The criteria I used to create this team was: Regionals >>>>>> Masters 1 > Esports Wolrd Cup > Masters 2 >>>> Champions

Collected all the major beats and stories of the event, as well as some of my favorite player tweets for a Champions Storylines Event Timeline. See here!

vctstories.today/timeline

CURIOUS IF THERE'S ANYTHING I MISSED???

After your feedback going to stop updating this site and let it serve as a nice lil' archive of this year's champs!

if loud and vitality werent in group B do you see GE or EDG making it out of groups and going far? personally no

Paper Rex- 2.3M

FNATIC- 2.1M

NRG- 2M

Loud- 2M

Edward Gaming- 1.5M

who will be next to join the 2M club??

Timofey Chromov… My beloved Timofey Chromov. Once again, he isn’t the Valorant champion. Once again, he finishes second. On a human level, it’s a real shame.

Even commentators—they don’t have to be neutral. Referees, sure, they should be neutral. But commentators are human, too. And they have their own personal preferences. I swear to you: I really wanted Timofey Chromov to become the Champion.🥹

In 2022, aspas pulled it off against Liquid at Masters Reykjavik; in 2026, tkzin recreated the move at the exact same spot on Haven against Vitality in the Champions Grand Final

For everytime Thieves had went to Paris and left with a trophy, I’d have one nickel and a ban from the subreddit

For me it was this Lotus against G2, played in Stage 2 all the way back in August. Up until this point, G2 were on an unbeaten streak on Lotus in Americas, and it was one of their best maps. Loud were still showing signs of being better than last split, but not at the world champion level. And yet they came in with a solid plan, and their comms felt super composed and mature. G2 literally had no chance.

Even back then, it was still extremely unlikely Loud could make champs since they were way behind on points, but this was maybe the first time people took notice of the new look Loud.

- 4,664 Maps Played

- 3,709 HOURS of gameplay

- 605 Unique Players

- 506 Overtime Games (10.8%)

- 54 Tournaments

- 98,934 Rounds Played (Average of 21.2 per map)

- 685,399 Total Kills

- Most picked agent is Omen (61%)

- One map elimination record of 47 by aspas 🇧🇷

- 516 ACS Record by PatMen 🇵🇭

- Most first kills overall by Derke 🇫🇮 (1,144)

- Best overall rating of 1.20 by vo0kashu 🇷🇺

- Best overall ACS of 249 by ZmjjKK 🇨🇳

- Most maps played at 346 by f0rsakeN 🇮🇩

- 15 13-0's

- 10 Bo5 Reverse Sweeps

source: vctscrims on X|twitter

"Maybe the game is giving back a little to me" is a callback from his interview after Stage 1 with Pedro Romero. I hope the 100T players stick together, with or without partnership.

After that Boaster twerk in front of the last trophy EMEA won ever since then EMEA has won nothing

Google autotranslate: "Rest in peace, mommy, you deserve it"

I rarely post tweets, but this was too wholesome to pass on.

Also, for its number of impressions, I've never seen a tweet with so many likes. Stuff like this makes me happy to be apart of this community despite all of the negatives.

By team of the year, I mean the team with the overall best results and level of play averaged throughout the year.

The last couple of years have seemed particularly tricky to me, but just to put some candidates forward:

2021: Gambit (runner-up: SEN)

2022: OpTic (runner-up: LOUD, FPX)

2023: Fnatic (runner-up: EG, PRX)

2024: GenG (runner-up: TH, EDG)

2025: one of PRX, FNC, NRG, or G2

2026: one of NS, LOUD, or PRX

Coming over from CS , one of the biggest differences in professional VALORANT is how impossible it is for a single roster to establish a multi-year dynasty.

In CS, we had iconic eras: NiP's 87-0 map run, Fnatic dominating, Astralis winning 3 Majors in a row, and NAVI going on unstoppable stretches. One core/lineup would dominate the entire scene for a year or more.

In VALORANT? The tactical parity and meta shifts make that virtually impossible.

Here are a few crazy facts that show how wildly competitive VCT really is:

No 5-man lineup has EVER won Champions twice. Every single year, a completely different core of players lifts the trophy. Even when an org like LOUD wins a second Champions title, they do it years later with an entirely rebuilt lineup.

Nobody has ever swept a full season. The absolute closest we got to a "Golden Road" was Fnatic's legendary run in 2023 when they won back-to-back international trophies (LOCK//IN and Masters Tokyo). Even they couldn't keep that form all the way through Champions. 

Constant agent & map meta shifts keep the floor moving. Meta changes punish tactical depth. It often feels like a team spends 6–8 months mastering a meta, only for a massive balance patch, new agent release, or map pool swap to wipe out all their progress. It rewards teams who adapt quickly to short-term gimmicks over teams building long-term, deep-rooted playstyles.
, a team that masters a meta in Stage 1 can easily get hard-countered or fall out of touch by Stage 2.

Do you guys prefer this level of chaos where any top team can realistically win an event on their day, or do you miss having a clear, unstoppable team in the scene?

like to put aspas in the goat Convo.

I would choose Ethan who has two Champions trophies and Chronicle who has two Masters and Lock In over aspas any day.

aspas won one trophy, 33% win rate in grand finals then never went to any grand finals ever again. Also needs a team to be built around him.

Ethan won two trophies, 66% win rate in grand finals, an IGL who plays along the system, not the other way around. Won trophies with different teams.

Chronicle won three trophies, 43% win rate in grand finals, flex player who fits in to the system like Ethan. Won trophies with different teams.

Don't ever put that one hit wonder in the goat convo again.

like in other popular esports like CS2, Overwatch, Marvel Rivals the better team always win like by more than 90% chance. But in Valorant, theres so many upset and A team 3-0s B team but day after when they play again B team can 3-0 A team... theres just no consistency and so random

I love how they all choke in someway lol, VIT should've get the 2-0 lead, PRX should've won, FNC shoud've won the 4v2
The script might be real

Now that Loud has won their second Champions who do you think is the biggest team in Valorant history? Many people say its fnatic, others say loud, others say PRX but what do you think?

Now that 2026 Game Changers Champions is going to being in 4 days, will they be using the Warden? And what map pool will be followed?

Something needs to be done that guts neon and or chamber or makes it so their not a complete necessity on every map (whether that be a ini buff to flash ini or flash duellists)

Even after having the core mechanic that was abused removed from her kit neon is still insanely oppressive

Almost every game towards the end of champs rounds ended like this it felt like

Chamber dry peak with an op (get one tp) or chamber dry peak with an op get hit by util (tp tjen repeak and get one anyway) attack ops were super oppressive as well

I feel the main issue with the meta is chamber enabling neon unless you fully run it down no non neon comp can comfortably force chamber off the line because they cant scale quick enough on alot of sites (which is why I feel like scan ini just isn't good enough to stop repeaks as long as they dong panic tp they can just eat the scans which luk xo did several times)

Notable chokes that I feel like the point above impacts

-lotus a

split a

summit mid deep a site (by door) and deep b site (under heaven by default)

Haven c main and garage (with tp to plat or behind default)

Ascent mid and maybe a bomb site (from top gen)

Can't remember the other maps in the map pool right now but to end it off chamber controls way to much of the map right now unless you use like 3+ pieces of utility to clear yim out but current agents he can pretty easily repeat with minimal consequences with patience

personally i think ASPAS and VERNO will stay