Team Vitality has made the playoffs for Valorant Champions 2026 after defeating LOUD 2-0 in Shanghai to progress as Group winners.
Vitality became the first VCT EMEA roster to make the playoffs after Paper Rex and NRG progressed from Groups C and D, respectively.
Vitality’s victory over LOUD will go down in the history books as a 2-0 victory, but that scoreline hides the struggle that progressed in the actual contest, largely on map two of Summit.
Starting on Vitality’s map pick of Ascent, the EMEA roster did certainly have the stronger start, racing to a 7-1 lead on the Attack side, behind a ludicrous 347 ACS performance from Dawid ‘PROFEK’ Åšwięć on that side of the map.
Winning five of the following six rounds, LOUD managed to tighten up the map to an 8-7 scoreline in favor of Vitality, but Vitality managed to shut down that comeback potential behind clean kills from team veterans Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev and Chronicle to win the map 13-7.
Summit lived up to its name, as the game became a brutal expedition to reach the peak of Group B. The contest saw both teams dominant on the defending side, trading 9-3 halves, and leading to overtime.
The contest then lost all shape or pattern, as it became about clutch after clutch as both teams desperately fought to stay in the contest.
It was finally Vitality who mounted the Summit, recovering from a 16-17 deficit to convert the map 19-17 through the clutching ability of young rifler Ștefan ‘Sayonara’ Mîtcu, a fitting way to make Champions playoffs as the superteam showed that there is still a place for youth and development even in a roster built to win.
Is Vitality ‘superteam’ finally ready to win?
The Vitality roster was billed as a ‘superteam’ after the organization secured the services of Valorant legend Timofey ‘Chronicle’ Khromov ahead of the 2026 season.
However, the roster has taken a long time to get fully online, progressively looking more dangerous as the year progressed.
Vitality started 2026 unable to field their full roster due to Sayonara’s age preventing him from competing in VCT EMEA Kick Off 2026.
Instead, Bartosz ‘UNFAKE’ Bernacki took to the server as Vitality fell flat, eliminated by Team Liquid and missing out on Masters Santiago.
Managing only a 2-3 record in the group stage of VCT EMEA Stage 1, Vitality finally started to warm up in the Stage 1 playoffs, defeating Liquid, Fnatic, and FUT before ultimately losing 2-3 in the Grand Finals of the event in a classic contest.
Their pattern of improvement continued at Valorant Masters London, finishing as the best EMEA team with a fourth-place finish.
However, both the Esports World Cup and EMEA Stage 2 led to disappointing 7th-8th placed finishes, with Vitality fortunate to make Valorant Champions Shanghai on VCT Points.
The ‘superteam’ needed several results to go their way to make the event, but they are making full use of the gift they have been given, defeating Global Esports 2-1 and now LOUD 2-0 to make the playoffs of the event.
After an impressively resilient victory over LOUD, fans will be hoping that the team is now mature enough to take the next step and secure the ultimate silverware in Valorant at Champions.
Can Vitality make it all the way in Shanghai? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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