LOUD beats NRG and Vitality beats G2 at Valorant Champions
The defending champions drop to the lower bracket, where one loss ends their run; Vitality and LOUD meet in the upper final on Oct. 16.
LOUD beat NRG, the defending champions, 2-1, and Team Vitality swept G2 Esports 2-0 in the upper-bracket semifinals of Valorant Champions 2026, played Saturday, Oct. 10, in Shanghai, according to VLR.gg.
NRG, which had reached the semifinals with a quarterfinal sweep, won Sunset 13-10. It lost Haven 9-13 and the deciding map, Summit, 3-13. That drops the team to the lower bracket, where any loss knocks it out of the tournament.
Vitality dispatched G2 without needing a third map, winning Abyss and Split. On Abyss, the top average combat score (ACS) belonged to BABYBAY of G2 with 280, followed by Jamppi of Vitality with 259. On Split, two Vitality players led: Chronicle with 281 and Derke with 277, per VLR.gg. VLR.gg also does not make clear how many rounds each team won on those maps, so the scores are not published.
The upper final will be Vitality against LOUD, on Oct. 16. They had already met in the group stage on Sept. 30, and Vitality won, according to VLR.gg.
On Oct. 11, NRG and G2 play the second round of the lower bracket: NRG against 100 Thieves and G2 against T1. Those two opponents arrive after winning their first lower-bracket series 2-1 on Oct. 9, over Nongshim RedForce and Paper Rex, who were eliminated. The grand final of the tournament is Oct. 18, according to The Spike.
