Vitality and LOUD to Face Off in VCT Champions 2026 Grand Final
The two teams, who split their previous matches at the event, will compete for the trophy in Shanghai.
Team Vitality and LOUD will play for the VCT Champions 2026 title in Shanghai after Vitality defeated 100 Thieves 3-1 in the lower bracket final.
Vitality's victory sets up a third meeting with LOUD at the tournament, with the series tied at one win each.
"We didn’t really expect any of these two teams in the grand final," one analysis noted, citing both teams' unexpected runs.
Vitality advanced by taking down 100 Thieves, a team considered a primary favorite to win the championship.
The loss ended 100 Thieves' run at Riot's season-ending world championship in what was described as a painful exit for a roster that had a strong year.
On the 100 Thieves side, supporters pointed to Cryocells as the player keeping the team in the fight, while many fans called Asuna's series disappointing.
The team's rookie, Sayonara, has been Vitality's highest-performing player in the playoffs and received praise from fans after the win, with many saying he lived up to the hype he had before he was signed.
LOUD, one of the youngest squads at the event, reached the final by defeating top teams including Paper Rex and NRG.
Redington Cybersport reported in October that LOUD's victory over NRG set up a rematch against Team Vitality, the only team to have beaten LOUD at the tournament so far.
The two teams last played in the upper bracket, where LOUD secured a narrow 2-1 victory.
That series was extremely close and could have gone either way, with analysts noting a round rollback on the final map that killed Vitality's momentum while they were winning.
That upper-bracket win could provide LOUD with a potential advantage in the grand final map veto, as some past VCT grand finals have given the upper-bracket team two map bans.
For Vitality players Derke and Chronicle, a grand final against LOUD is familiar ground.
The pair previously played together on Fnatic, which beat LOUD 3-2 in the LOCK//IN grand final in São Paulo in 2023, completing a famous comeback on the deciding map, Icebox.
Fnatic then won Masters Tokyo later that year.
Chronicle also won Masters Berlin 2021 with Gambit and reached the Champions final that same year.
LOUD has experience with long rivalries within a single event, having faced OpTic Gaming three times en route to winning Champions 2022 in Istanbul.
The grand final will be the first international grand final for the current LOUD roster, with half of the players having just turned 18 this year.
Multiple players from Vitality have experience in this situation, with analysts suggesting that could be a factor in a close match.
"In a close match like this, we believe going with experience is the best bet," one prediction stated.
LOUD's heavy hitters, lukxo and Erde, have posted 1.36 and 1.34 ratings respectively throughout the playoffs.
The series is scheduled to be a best-of-five.
