Valorant Masters Santiago 2026 is a global Valorant tournament organized by publisher Riot Games following the Kickoff stage of the 2026 Valorant Champions Tour (VCT). The tournament is being held from February 28 to March 15, 2026 in Santiago, Chile. The first annual Masters was expanded to twelve teams, with the top three teams from each International League competing.
It marks the second international Valorant competition to be held in Latin America since the LOCK//IN Kickoff event in 2023, and the first to be held in Chile.[2]
Host selection
On 2 October 2025, in the build-up to the 2025 Valorant Champions Finals in Paris, France, Riot Games announced the host cities for the two Valorant Masters tournaments in 2026, with Santiago, Chile being selected as the host for the first Masters event of the competitive season.[3] The city hosted the first-ever esports competition of the Pan American Games during the 2023 edition.[4]
Qualification
Unlike the previous season's first Masters tournament, twelve (12) teams qualified for the tournament from all four VCT international leagues, namely the Americas, China, EMEA, and Pacific.[3] The top-seeded team from each region received a bye and automatically qualified for playoffs, while the remaining eight teams competed in the Swiss Stage to qualify for playoffs.[5]
The tournament will use the same twelve-team format used in Masters Shanghai 2024 and Masters Toronto 2025. The second and third seeds from each International League compete in a Swiss-system tournament stage. The four teams that achieved two wins will advance to playoffs while those that achieved two losses will be eliminated.
The four teams from the Swiss stage will join the first seeds from each region in the playoffs, a double-elimination tournament to decide the event's champion.
Swiss stage
Eight teams will be competing in the Swiss stage, with the four teams that achieved two wins before accruing two losses advancing to playoffs. All matches will be best-of-three.
The draw for the initial matches were held after the lower bracket finals of the VCT Americas Kickoff. The second-seeded teams were matched against one of the four third-seeded teams, and teams from the same league can't be drawn against each other for the first match.
Seed 1 teams qualified directly to the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals, while the other four teams qualified for the playoffs from the Swiss stage.
Each seed 1 team selected their opponent in a draw once the Swiss stages concluded.
Order drawn: Nongshim RedForce (picked Gentle Mates), then All Gamers (picked G2 Esports), then FURIA Esports (picked Paper Rex), leaving BBL with last remaining team (NRG).
All matches are played in a best-of-three series, with the exception of the Lower Bracket Finals and the Grand Finals which are played in a best-of-five
Upper Bracket Quarterfinals
Upper Bracket Semifinals
Upper Bracket Final
Grand Final
Nongshim RedForce
2
Gentle Mates
0
Nongshim RedForce
G2 Esports
All Gamers
0
G2 Esports
2
FURIA Esports
1
Paper Rex
2
Paper Rex
NRG
BBL Esports
1
NRG
2
Lower Bracket - Round 1
Lower Bracket Quarterfinals
Lower Bracket Semifinal
Lower Bracket Final
Gentle Mates
All Gamers
FURIA Esports
BBL Esports
Final standings
All participating teams were awarded a share of the US$500,000 prize pool. Additionally, 1st through 6th place teams earned Championship Points to help them qualify for the 2026 Valorant Champions Shanghai, which will be held in September.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
