LOUD Eliminates Global Esports from Valorant Champions 2026
The Brazilian squad won both maps to advance to the playoffs, ending GE's first Champions run in Shanghai.
LOUD eliminated Global Esports from Valorant Champions 2026 with a 2-0 victory in the Group B decider in Shanghai on October 4.
The Brazilian team won Split 13-8 and Sunset 13-9 to secure the second playoff spot from the group, joining Team Vitality in the top eight.
Global Esports, the VCT Pacific first seed, finish their first Champions appearance tied for 9th to 12th place with one series win in three.
The loss stings a little more because Sunset was one of the two maps GE won against EDward Gaming two days earlier.
Global Esports had the better start on Split, leading 8-5 and sitting five rounds away from a 1-0 series lead.
"They never got to nine," the notes said.
LOUD won eight rounds in a row to close the map 13-8, a run that swung the whole decider in Brazil’s favor.
LOUD carried that momentum straight into Sunset and won the first seven rounds.
GE took nine of the next 15 rounds, which made the scoreline respectable, but a 7-0 hole against a team of LOUD’s experience was too much to recover from.
LOUD closed the map 13-9.
Roberto “erde” Lobos was the best player on the server.
LOUD’s in-game leader finished with a series-high 46 kills and a 1.56 rating across 43 rounds, which works out to 1.07 kills per round from the player also running the calls for his team.
GE came to Shanghai as VCT Pacific’s first seed, earned by winning the Stage 2 title.
They came back from 0-2 down to beat Nongshim RedForce 3-2 in the grand final.
The best moment of the week came on October 2, when GE swept EDward Gaming 2-0 and sent the 2024 world champions home.
Against LOUD, the 8-5 lead on Split slipped away and the team never found a way back into the series.
LOUD won Champions back in 2022 in Istanbul with a different roster.
This year’s group stage was bumpy.
A 2-0 win over EDG was followed by a 0-2 loss to Vitality, and the second map of that series went to overtime before Vitality closed it 19-17 on Summit.
The win also puts four VCT Americas teams in the top eight: LOUD, 100 Thieves, NRG and G2 Esports.
China has none.
All four Chinese teams went out in the group stage of their home event.
Seven of the eight playoff spots are locked.
The last one goes to the winner of the Group A decider between T1 and FUT Esports.
The playoffs start on October 7 at the Jing’an Sports Center in Shanghai.
Eight teams play a double-elimination bracket.
Every series is best-of-three, except the lower bracket final and the grand final, which are best-of-five.
The grand final is on October 18, 2026, at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai.
