As if the hype for the conclusion of Valorant Champions Paris isn’t enough, developer Riot Games has revealed the locations of the VCT 2026 Masters events. In an exciting twist, the first one will take place in South America for the first time ever.
Leo Faria, the Global Head of Valorant Esports at Riot Games, announced that Santiago, the capital city of Chile, will host the Masters event starting in February 2026.
VCT 2026 International Event Locations
Masters Santiago will also mark the first time since LOCK//IN São Paulo in February 2023 that any Valorant event takes place in South America.
This is the full list of confirmed Masters tournaments in 2026, including the all-female Game Changers tournament.
- Masters Santiago (February / March)
- Masters London (June)
- Champions Shanghai (September / October)
- Game Changers (November)
In case you missed it, Shanghai, China, was previously revealed as the location of the VCT 2026 Champions. At the time of writing, the precise start/end dates, as well as the venues, have not been revealed.
VCT 2026 roadmap. Image Credit: Riot Games
Faria explained: “We’re building the next era of the sport, a VCT that’s more open with more events and more variety of competition. We are very excited, so much that we’re not going to wait until 2027, and we’ll start introducing these changes next year.”
The changes Leo Faria is referring to include 12 teams at the Masters Santiago event. Previously, the number of teams at the first Masters event of a VCT season was eight. Further, both regional and international VCT events will now use bracket formats instead of Swiss/Group stage formats. This change starts with the regional Kickoff events, which will now use a triple-elimination bracket format.
Before any of that, of course, is Valorant Champions Paris, with just four teams left at the time of writing.