Valorant finally comes to the UK for Valorant Masters London 2026

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 02/10/2025

Riot Games are finally bringing a major Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) event to the UK next year.

It has been confirmed that London will host the second VCT Masters tournament in 2026, the last before Valorant Champions 2026 in Shanghai.

The international event will welcome the top seeds from each region around the world to the English capital in June 2026.

However, no venue or official dates have been confirmed as of yet.

The UK has a rich history in Valorant esports.

UK-based Fnatic are currently battling in the Valorant Champions Paris finals, led by British superstar Jake ‘Boaster’ Howlett.

It seems 2026 is shaping up to be a good year for esports events in the UK to,o with Dreamhack and ESL One coming to Birmingham next year.

Alongside London and Shanghai, the first Valorant Masters of 2026 will be held in Santiago, Chile.

This will be the first VCT event in the LATAM region and the first Valorant event in South America since Lock In São Paulo 2023.

Additionally, Riot has announced that the VCT in 2026 will visit double the number of countries compared to 2025.

This is possible through roadshows in new cities for the final weekend of VCT Playoffs in all four regions.

Except VCT CN in China will be a roadshow for the entire year, visiting five cities in total.

Riot Games announce changes for Valorant Champions Tour 2026

As well as venues and locations, Riot shared a lot more about their plans for VCT next year.

Riot had previously promised that Valorant esports will be completely overhauled in 2027 for a more open, exciting season.

Now, the publishers have revealed that some of the changes are coming a year early, including changed formats.

Kick Off will last longer with a brand new format: triple elimination, with teams having three chances instead of the usual two.

This will lead to three back-to-back days of games, with each one qualifying a single team for Valorant Masters Santiago.

Meanwhile, Valorant Masters 1 (London) will be expanded to 12 teams.

And VCT Champions Shanghai will allow Challengers teams to qualify for the first time ever.

Ascension tournaments are being replaced with a path to Valorant Champions.

In Stage 2, Challenger teams will compete in the Playoffs for a chance to qualify for Champions.

Riot says qualifying will give teams various benefits, including heavy compensation from digital goods.

This is perhaps better than Challenger teams assembling strong rosters, then having their best talent poached before competing in VCT.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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