VCT Americas Kickoff

The first VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) event to start this year, VCT Americas Kickoff 2026 will be viewers’ first chance to watch competitive action and see how both roster and game changes will affect the year moving forward. 12 teams will enter Americas Kickoff, and three will earn qualification for Masters Santiago — the first global event of 2026.

VCT Americas Kickoff Format

For the first time in VCT, all regional Kickoff tournaments will run triple-elimination brackets. Teams that qualified for VALORANT Champions Paris last year will earn a bye to the second round of the upper bracket, while the remaining eight will start in round one.

The winning finalist of each bracket will earn a place in Santiago, Chile, meaning a team can — in theory — reach all three finals without qualifying if they’re to lose all of them.

The event kicks off on Thursday, January 15th, wrapping up a month later on Sunday, February 15th.

VCT Americas Kickoff Teams

VCT Americas — played out of Los Angeles — includes organisations from across both North and South America. Huge names in esports like G2 and Cloud9 appear, as well as those known for their presence in VALORANT specifically, like two-time Masters winners Sentinels.

Partnered teams:

• 100 Thieves
• Cloud9
• Evil Geniuses
• FURIA
• KRÜ Esports
• Leviatán
• LOUD
• MIBR
• NRG
• Sentinels

Ascension teams:

• G2 Esports
• ENVY

Americas Kickoff Prize Pool

As was the case in Kickoff events last year, and barring any announcements to the contrary, VCT Americas Kickoff will feature no monetary prize pool.

Assuming developer Riot Games is to follow a similar distribution to 2025, only Stage 2 regional events will have money up for grabs, while Kickoff and Stage 1 only offer Championship Points and global qualification, as well as the glory associated with winning the event, which goes without saying.

Championship Points are tallied throughout the year based on regional and international performance. Historically, two of each region’s four Champs representatives are awarded based on Championship Points.

The winning team will be granted 4 Championship Points, the runners-up 3, third place 2, fourth place 1, and the rest of the teams will get none.

VCT Americas Kickoff Teams to Watch

Last year’s three-time Americas winners, G2 Esports will undoubtedly be a key team to keep an eye on going into 2026 as well. However, following the sudden dropping of JonahP, replaced permanently by Babybay after a bizarre off season shuffle, G2’s success is now far from guaranteed.

They’ll also likely face stiffer competition than they did last season. NRG’s youthful roster stunned the VALORANT community when they swept through VALORANT Champions, becoming world champs with a host of rookies and rejects, and having now added more firepower with keiko, they’ll definitely be in the mix for a Masters spot at the very least.

Challenging them will be MIBR, an org whose constructed a superteam for 2026. Superstar aspas remains, along with the recently emerged IGL Verno, with the pair joined by former-Sentinels superstar zekken in a move that sees two of the region’s best players unite.

Another to keep an eye on is ENVY. They were underdogs to reach the VCT but did so against the odds anyway. And now, following NRG’s success promoting tier two players, ENVY’s results may help to show whether the second tier does indeed hold a raft of unrecognised talent or whether NRG’s scouting meant that they were able to find the diamonds in the rough.

Where to watch VCT Americas Kickoff

VCT Americas Kickoff 2026 can be watched through Riot Games’ official channels. The league has its own accounts on YouTube and Twitch where viewers can tune in live.