Champions Shanghai Arrives With No Clear Favorite: The Chaos of 2026 Will Be Settled in China

VALORANT Champions Shanghai is just around the corner, and it arrives with an unusual label for a tournament of this caliber: there is no favorite. According to an analysis published by Esports Insider, which picks out eight players to watch at the event, the 2026 season has refused to crown a team, a region, or even a single player who clearly dominates the rest. Every major event of the year has produced a different winner and, in more than one case, an upset that caught everyone off guard.

This matters because Champions is not just another tournament: it closes out the circuit and defines the narrative of the year. Arriving without an established hierarchy makes Shanghai the perfect stage for any roster, and any individual player, to rewrite what will be said about 2026. For those of us who follow VALORANT from the competitive side, it is also a chance to study which playstyles and which player profiles are truly working when there is no clear winning formula.

What you need to know

• Champions Shanghai closes out a 2026 season in which, according to Esports Insider, no team, region, or player has definitively established themselves as the best.
• Nongshim RedForce took the title at Masters Santiago, one of the year's major international events.
• LEVIATÁN won Masters London but failed to qualify for Champions: a Masters champion misses out on the most important tournament of all.
• Esports Insider highlights eight players to watch in Shanghai, with the idea that this year the difference will be made by individuals rather than dynasties.
• Unpredictability has been the rule at nearly every major event this season, making it very hard to bet on a winner.

A season with no owner

The fact that best sums up the year is LEVIATÁN's situation. Winning an international Masters should be the ideal calling card for arriving at Champions as one of the serious contenders. Instead, the Masters London champions will be watching the tournament from the outside. It is the kind of twist that would have been unthinkable in previous seasons, and it shows just how much the gap between regions has narrowed: today, an international title guarantees nothing in the next qualification stage.

At the other end is Nongshim RedForce, who lifted the Masters Santiago trophy. With two different Masters champions, one of them absent, Shanghai shapes up as a genuinely open tournament, not one of those that gets billed as open and then ends with the same block of teams in the final. For viewers, that is excellent news; for analysts and the teams themselves, it is a puzzle.

Why look at the players rather than the teams

The fact that Esports Insider chose to put together a list of individual players instead of a ranking of favorites by team says a lot about where the game is right now. When no tactical system stands above the others, the weight falls on who can win key duels, open up rounds, and keep their composure on map five. The eight names singled out by the outlet represent exactly that: profiles capable of tipping a series on their own.

From our newsroom, we will not repeat that list name by name, because credit for the selection belongs to Esports Insider. What we do want to underline is the lesson it holds for any competitive player: in a meta with no fixed recipes, individual reads, map-by-map adaptation, and mental management matter as much as or more than executing prepared strategies. This is a year to watch how the best make decisions when the script no longer works.

Our take

At Underworld Lordz we will say it plainly: this is the best possible version of VALORANT as a spectacle, but also the most awkward one for the circuit's organizers. A Champions with no favorite is a treat for fans, but a Masters champion missing out on a spot in the final tournament is a symptom that the qualification format has rough edges worth reviewing. If international titles do not offer a reasonable path to Champions, the incentive to win them weakens and the public is left confused about what each trophy is really worth.

For the competitive players in our community, the message is more optimistic. When the gap between regions tightens, opportunities are spread more evenly and emerging talent has more room to make itself known. Nobody arrives in Shanghai with the result already written, and that is exactly what we want to see in a healthy circuit. For content creators, a tournament like this is pure gold too: there are stories on every team, any series can turn into a viral moment, and failed predictions get as much mileage as the ones that land.

Our position, in short, is to celebrate the competitive chaos while asking for a format that keeps pace with it. Champions being unpredictable on the merits of the players is great news; being unpredictable because the qualification path leaves out recent champions, not so much. Shanghai should serve both purposes: crown whoever plays best and open a serious conversation about how you get there.

What do you think?

The 2026 season has proven that nobody is safe and that any roster can fall or rise in a single series. Before Champions Shanghai kicks off, we want to hear from you in the team chat and on our Discord: do you think a championship this open is good for VALORANT, or would you rather have a circuit with clear dynasties to measure up against?