Everything You Need to Know about VCT Pacific 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 and writing the Team Secret section.)

VCT Pacific: The Rich get Richer

Pacific, composed of teams from East, Southeast, and South Asia, had their most dominant year to date in 2025. The region won both of the Masters tournaments this past year, with DRX and Paper Rex taking 3rd and 4th, respectively, at Champions Paris as well. While the region has gotten better overall, the trend suggested in the title rings true: the dominant forces of 2025 are heading into 2026 looking better than ever. 

Japan’s Best Look?

Despite their highly devoted fanbase, Japanese teams have failed to see success ever since the infamous ZETA Division run at 2022’s Masters Reykjavik. Coming into 2026, ZETA seems to have its best roster since that run. The organization kept SugarZ3ro and Xdll, picked up eKo and Absol from their recent podium finish at Red Bull Home Ground, and re-signed SyouTa, who was with the team during Stage 1 of 2025. Their coaching staff was also redone, adding in a new assistant coach in ryota and notably picking up ex-FNATIC coach Mini as a “coaching advisor”. These additions will not only help the team bolster their firepower but will also give much-needed depth to their coaching and playbook, though it’s hard to see them improving in the standings.

As for DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM for short), they chose to retool around their superstar Duelist Meiy. The team maintained Meiy, Akame, and SSeeS from 2025 while adding yatsuka and Caedye from the Japanese Challengers team RIDDLE ORDER. Despite a poor performance at Pacific’s Ascension, RIDDLE’s roster is the best in Japan, so I’m sure the new players will provide a breath of fresh air for DFM. 

Additionally, the region has gained a new organization this year, as VARREL has acquired the Korean roster SLT Seongnam for 2026. SLT had a dominant finish to their 2025 season, losing a total of 2 maps in their Pacific Ascension run before the Japanese organization picked them up. In particular, their highlight player seems to be XuNa, who topped the VLR stats with a 1.21 rating during Ascension. Though there’s always uncertainty with teams that haven’t played at the Tier 1 level, their top 4 performance at the SOOP Valorant League against multiple teams from VCT Pacific has given me confidence in the roster to perform well.

Overall, Japan has had stark upgrades compared to their previous seasons, but it’s difficult to know if they will perform on the big stage. If they can succeed, however, they’re sure to be crowd favorites among the fans in and outside of their nation.

Korea: Maintaining Dominance

VALORANT has never seen playoffs at an international event without a Korean team. Whether it’s the Vision Strikers/DRX core dominating the pre-franchising era, Gen.G’s performance as the best team of 2024, or T1’s recent victory at Masters Bangkok, the region demonstrates consistency at the highest level. Following the trends of years past, Korea has a newly-formed juggernaut as the face of the region in T1, but the other three teams are no slouches either.

T1 has acquired Munchkin from Gen.G, forming arguably the strongest Korean roster of all time (on paper). After clarifying that Munchkin would be taking the IGL(in-game leader) role from stax, the team placed at a respectable 5th-6th in the best-of-1 format at Red Bull Home Ground. A few weeks later, they played in the SOOP Valorant Invitational, capping off the event with a shocking 13-0 against a Boaster-less FNATIC to win the event. T1 seems to be one of the best teams not only in the Pacific, but also in the world. Whether or not they can live up to the hype is the question fans are waiting to see answered.

As for the other Korean team with a title, Gen.G continues to lose pieces from their prestigious 2024 core. As previously mentioned, Munchkin left the team for T1, causing them to re-promote Lakia as their IGL. Foxy9 is also leaving the team after a 1-year stint, being replaced by ZynX from DRX Academy. Their offseason performances have been respectable, placing top 4 in the SOOP Valorant Invitational and 2nd at the Radiant Intl. Invitational. The former titans have maintained Karon and t3xture from 2024, as well as Ash from 2025, so they should still be contenders to make an international or two in 2026.

Both DRX and Nongshim Red Force made one change each, but that doesn’t mean they’ll stay stagnant. Starting with DRX, their pattern of constantly swapping the roster around has continued despite their top 3 finish at Champions Paris. However, unlike previous instances, cannot be blamed on coach termi, as Flashback has retired from competitive Valorant for personal reasons. He is being replaced by Hermes from FEARX, who were the Korean Challengers runners-up. The two play extremely similar roles in their respective teams, so the only concerns to be had are the ones that have plagued DRX since the end of 2023: Can their new rosters mesh well enough to give them the ceiling needed to win an international championship?

As for Nongshim, their roster change was to the Controller slot, replacing Persia with Xross, who has been on their reserve roster since Ascension in 2024. The team managed to reclaim their Ascension slot for the second year in a row, beating BOOM Esports once more. The team looks to maintain their position as a mid-table Pacific team, but Francis, in particular, looks to be a standout player for their roster.

South(east) Asia: High highs, Low lows

South & Southeast Asia are home to 5 of the 12 teams in VCT Pacific, all of which are at notably different stages of development. From a team trying to make playoffs for the first time in Global Esports to some of the region’s finest, this sub-region looks to be the liveliest in Pacific, if not the entire world.

Starting off with the most iconic of the five, Paper Rex has made a single change coming into 2026. After bringing in PatMen at the start of Stage 1 in 2025 for their win at the Masters Toronto, he has been replaced by invy of Team Secret. Invy has been a target of Paper Rex for some time, and was the star of Secret’s roster since the beginning of franchising in 2023. The team has only played in the Radiant Intl. Invitational since picking up invy, but they did end up winning the tournament, beating Gen.G in a 3-1 fashion. With the rest of the core remaining the same, PRX looks to be the top team in the Pacific and a strong title contender throughout the year.

Rex Regum Qeon is another team with only 1 change, picking up Jovi to fill in the shoes of Ewok. RRQ was the first team not Korean or named Paper Rex to win a Pacific title during Stage 1, though it failed to find success at both Masters Toronto and Champions Paris. Hopefully, Jovi’s coaching can push them over the line and allow them to push past their 4th-5th expectations within the region.

FULL SENSE is a new team to VCT Pacific, taking the spot and roster of TALON after their financial issues. The 5 members of TALON’s roster are still on the team, though former IGL Crws has moved to the head coach position, being replaced by Leviathan from the old FS roster. This team has very high potential, and is a textbook dark horse with their excellent mechanics and room for growth after a strong rookie season for Killua and thyy.

Global Esports, as previously mentioned, is looking for its first playoff berth since the establishment of franchising with its best roster yet. The team has lived up to the global in their name, maintaining UdoTan and Kr1stal from the past year while picking up 3 players and a new coaching staff, all from different teams. The three names most familiar are the aforementioned PatMen from Paper Rex, Autumn from the Chinese team FunPlus Phoenix, and Frost from TALON. Additionally, xavi8k was picked up from NAOS, and vladk0r from Twisted Minds Orchid. This team’s ceiling isn’t as high as the others we’ve talked about, but it’s sure to be their best iteration yet.

Team Secret is looking to make a splash in VCT Pacific after failing to qualify for any international since 2021. However, this will be difficult after losing their most consistent player in invy to Paper Rex. They’ve kept their consistent core of kellyS and JessieVash while adding Masters Bangkok winner Sylvan from T1, as well as TenTen from ZETA and BerserX from BOOM. They’ve also swapped out their previous coach, Meow, for Team Secret Academy coach Rbtx. While there aren’t high expectations for this roster because of the pure firepower in many of the other VCT Pacific teams, they always have the potential to make big waves this year.