Americas teams open Champions 2026 playoffs with 2-0 wins

NRG and LOUD won their opening series in straight maps on Oct. 7 at the VALORANT Champions 2026 playoffs. NRG defeated T1, while LOUD beat Paper Rex. Both Pacific teams moved to the lower bracket, and NRG and LOUD set up an all-Americas upper-semifinal match.

NRG began the day against T1 on Lotus, the Korean team’s map pick. T1 led 7-5 at halftime, but NRG won the defensive half and closed out the map 13-11. NRG then took Summit 13-7 to complete the sweep and become the first team to reach the upper semifinals.

LOUD faced Paper Rex in the second series. Paper Rex led 8-4 on Split before LOUD won nine of the next 10 rounds and took the map 13-9.

Paper Rex built a 9-3 halftime lead on Sunset and later reached map point. LOUD erased the deficit on defense, forced overtime and won 15-13 to complete the 2-0 series.

LOUD will face NRG in the upper semifinal on Oct. 10. The match will be a rematch of two VCT Americas Stage 2 playoff series. NRG won the first meeting 2-1, while LOUD won the lower-bracket rematch 3-2.

All four Americas representatives reached the Champions 2026 playoff stage. The region is guaranteed another win in the opening round because 100 Thieves and G2 Esports will meet on Oct. 8. The winner will join NRG and LOUD in the upper semifinals. Team Vitality and Nongshim RedForce will play the other quarterfinal that day.

Before LOUD faced Paper Rex, in-game leader Roberto “erde” Lobos described the Americas as the tournament’s strongest region. In comments about the matchup, he used the phrase “the biggest team of Brazil” for LOUD and “the biggest team in the Pacific” for Paper Rex. LOUD won the series without dropping a map.

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