Team Vitality are one series away from the Valorant Champions 2026 trophy.
The French organization beat 100 Thieves in the playoffs to book its place in the grand final. LOUD are waiting there.
The loss ends 100 Thieves’ run at Riot’s season-ending world championship. It’s a painful exit for a roster that brought its fans one of their best years in a long time.
Vitality’s Sayonara got plenty of love from fans after the win. Many said he lived up to the hype he had before he was signed.
On the 100 Thieves side, supporters pointed to Cryocells as the player keeping the team in the fight. Asuna had a harder time with the fanbase, with many fans calling his series disappointing.
The final is the third series between Vitality and LOUD at this event. They’re tied at one win each.
Vitality took the first meeting, a best-of-three in the group stage. LOUD hit back in a best-of-three playoff rematch in the upper bracket, which sent Vitality down to the lower bracket.
That upper-bracket win could help LOUD before a single round is played. Some past VCT grand finals have given the upper-bracket team two map bans. That’s an edge in the veto, not a head start on the scoreboard. The exact 2026 rules decide how much it matters.
Haven’t we met before
For Derke and Chronicle, a big final against LOUD is familiar ground.
The pair played together on Fnatic in 2023. That year, Fnatic beat LOUD three–two in the LOCK//IN grand final in São Paulo, completing a famous comeback on the deciding map, Icebox. Fnatic then won Masters Tokyo later that year.
Chronicle’s resume goes back even further. He won Masters Berlin 2021 with Gambit and reached the Champions final that same year.
LOUD know all about long rivalries inside one event, too. At Champions 2022 in Istanbul, they faced OpTic Gaming three times: in the group stage, the upper-bracket final, and the grand final. LOUD won the last one and lifted the trophy.
