Everything You Need to Know About VCT Americas in 2026

VCT, or the Valorant Champions Tour, has had one of its most chaotic offseasons to date following the 2025 season. Teams are scrambling to put together a roster for the final season of this franchising era, with contracts ending after this season. The question is, which teams are good? Which teams are bad? Which teams will surprise us? In this article, I will do my best to give you everything you need to know about every VCT team coming into 2026… except the Chinese teams, since I don’t know much about them.

NOTE: Teams are in bold, players in italics, and tournaments are underlined.

(P.S. Thank you to Matthew Salvador for editing.)

VCT Americas: More stacked than ever

Every single Americas team made a change this offseason, and it’s not hard to see why. Kickoff and Stage 1 were run by G2 and Sentinels, although that narrative shifted in Stage 2 when NRG made their late-season push to win Champions Paris. The question is, will these roster changes shake up the narrative of Americas being top heavy? Or will the dominant forces maintain their throne?

NA’s Finest: The Same, But Different

All three of NRG, G2, and Sentinels made Champions, and seem to be maintaining their role as top teams in Americas. However, their rosters and strength have notably shifted around since NRG lifted their trophy back in October. 

The champions themselves have made only one change, with s0m’s temporary retirement forcing NRG to pick up keiko from Team Liquid. This change is widely considered a sidegrade by the community, if not being an improvement in-game. The main concern with this change is internal synergy, as s0m was known for keeping the vibes up for the team. Despite this, the team had a strong showing at their one offseason appearance, placing second at Red Bull Home Ground. The team should remain a strong contender both regionally and globally, and could very well win another trophy in 2026.

G2 have also only made one change, swapping JonahP and BABYBAY on the roster to have BABYBAY as the starter. The news as to why this happened is unknown at this time, but JonahP has not been picked up by another team yet. I’m sure once he’s picked up by a team (likely after Kickoff) all of the details will be made clear. The team seems to have kept up their regional dominance, beating NRG to win Red Bull Home Ground while getting 4th at the Radiant International Invitational. G2 is still a global powerhouse, but it seems unlikely their regional success will translate into international success on the same level as 2025.

Sentinels have made the most drastic changes out of the three teams, with bang, zekken, and Zellsis all leaving to other teams in free agency. To replenish their roster, SEN acquired cortezia from MIBR and promoted Kyu and Reduxx from their academy roster. Much like Munchkin and stax over at T1, Kyu will be taking over the IGLing role from JohnQT, giving him the space to be a midrounder instead. The roster won both of their invitationals they hosted, placing a respectable 5th-6th at Red Bull Home Ground. It’s fairly clear that the team isn’t going to have the same expectations as last year’s roster, but the team will consistently be in the top 6 of Americas at worst.

The Rest of NA: They’re all good?

North America’s arguably the strongest it’s ever been, with 3 of the 4 teams in this group making sizable upgrades to their roster. Cloud9, 100 Thieves, Evil Geniuses, and ENVY make up this group, and ranking them against each other is truly a struggle.

Cloud9 has earned themselves the name “Nepotism9” after picking up Zellsis from Sentinels, making him a first-time IGL on his second stint with the team. They’ve also acquired Zellsis’s old teammate penny, who has notably played for Team Liquid and Apeks during 2025. The team was just shy of Champions Paris last season, and have managed to make sizable improvements to their roster. But with the rest of Americas growing stronger too, will they be able to rise above the rest?

100 Thieves have mixed some of the old and new with this roster, picking up a core from TSM after their Ascension loss as well as a familiar face. Timotino, vora, and Nbs have made their way over, with Nbs slotting in as the new head coach and vora as the in-game leader. To replace Zander at Controller, the team re-acquired bang, who was on the team from 2022-2024 and left to fill the slot left by TenZ on Sentinels during 2025. With the addition of d00mbr0s as an assistant coach and Cryo swapping to and performing well on the Sentinel role during the offseason, it’s hard to see them being anything but better than last season.

Evil Geniuses have completely revamped their team, keeping only supamen from their 2025 roster. The team chose to snag okeanos and C0M from Leviátan, reuniting C0M with coach potter for his first season of IGLing. The Controller role will be filled by bao, who was teammates with okeanos back on M80 during Stage 1, and most recently played with SaD Esports. Lastly, their duelist is a familiar face for VCT Americas, dgzin. Formerly on FURIA and LOUD, this is dgzin’s first time on an English-speaking roster, which is a concern for the team. Other than that, this team has all the makings of a dark horse, and I have a lot of belief in them for 2026.

ENVY is the new team on the block, but they’re not the same team that climbed their way to the top of Challengers. Both ion2x and canezerra are unavailable for the season due to being too young, forcing the organization to pick up keznit and Rossy for the entire season. Their expectations are dampened by the roster moves, but the talent still lends itself to the team having a lot of upset potential. They’re hard to predict, as it feels like they can win or lose to anyone.

LATAM: The Old and the New

The two teams of Latin America have gone down different paths this offseason, rebuilding their rosters with the old and new talents from South America. While the expectations are varied, both of these teams have the potential to exceed their performance in the past season.

Leviátan’s is full of the new guard, with 4 players 18 or younger. Their oldest member is kiNgg, and the only other non-rookie is Sato, who joined the team during stage 2 of 2025. Neon & blowz come from LEV Academy, who won Challengers LATAM at the end of the year, though were ineligible for Ascension. spike was the standout player on 2Game Esports, who won Americas Ascension 2024 but failed to convert the wins on the VCT stage. Overall, this team competes for the highest firepower in VCT Americas, and are considered by many to have an extremely high ceiling.

KRÜ Esports, in contrast, brought in an older collection of talent to replenish their roster, the youngest of which is silentzz from 2Game Esports to fill in the Sentinel role. As for the IGL, they have brought in ex-LOUD member and Champions Istanbul winner saadhak, reuniting him with fellow champion Less after their unsuccessful stints in EMEA. Both of these players look to get back into their peak form and prove they are some of the best talents in their roles of all time, as projected by their dominance in 2022 & 2023. Last but not least, mwzera joins the team, a known talent within the sphere that was on FURIA from the beginning of franchising to 2025 Kickoff. While the team is having visa issues and may not be available for their first game of the season, I struggle to see this team being worse than the middle of the pack in VCT Americas, which is no small feat when the region is so stacked.

Brazil: A Titan Amongst Mid

Brazilian Valorant is potentially the most imbalanced it’s ever been, with MIBR forming a true Americas superteam while FURIA and LOUD’s rosters pale in comparison. Will MIBR live up to the hype, and will the other two teams be able to break out of mediocrity?

MIBR’s turbulent 2025 season ended high with a top 6 finish at Champions Paris, and the roster was rebuilt with some of the finest talent the Americas has to offer. aspas and Verno remain from the 2025 roster, and are joined by aspas’s former teammates Mazino and tex from KRÜ and LEV respectively. To top off those acquisitions, the organization was able to pick up zekken from Sentinels. It is rumored that zekken will be transitioning to the Controller role for 2026, giving the team added flexibility in their roles. With two superstar talents and multiple people at the top of their roles, it’s hard to put much doubt on this roster. Their role flexibility, firepower, and proven talent puts them at the top of Americas, and I’d be shocked if this team wasn’t an international contender.

FURIA, in contrast, was widely regarded as the worst team in VCT last year, with their substitute Kickoff team getting more wins than their official roster. This time, they’ve decided to build a non-Brazilian roster, picking up a new set of 5 players. koalanoob comes in from NAVI, artzin from MIBR as the IGL, nerve & alym from QoR, and eeiu from 100 Thieves. The team didn’t have the best showings in the offseason, but it’s unlikely their season will go nearly as poorly as last year did.

Lastly, LOUD are coming off their least successful season to date, yet their roster has only had one change. RobbieBk is being replaced by Darker, who comes in from Challengers LATAM. According to the Latin American community, Darker is a player that has always been in talks for roster changes, but this is his first opportunity at the VCT stage. Despite their poor performance during 2025, This team could easily exceed expectations.

And that wraps up VCT Americas! The region is arguably the strongest it’s ever been, and potentially the strongest in the world. I predict NRG, MIBR, and G2 to make Masters Santiago, but Leviátan, Sentinels, Evil Geniuses, Cloud9, and 100 Thieves could surprise everyone by breaking into that upper echelon, especially LEV. Thank you for reading, and be sure to check out Americas Kickoff on January 15th!

SOURCES:

1. vlr.gg

2. vctstats.com/rostermania