VALORANT's 2026 season ended at Champions Shanghai, where LOUD beat Team Vitality. Riot continues to ship agent and patch content, with Hush added in Patch 13.09 and a 24-stamp LINE set tied to the agent's launch.
VALORANT's 2026 competitive season ran through the VALORANT Challengers Japan circuit and closed at Champions Shanghai, where LOUD beat Team Vitality 3-1 in the Grand Finals on October 18. REJECT had gone 7-0 through the VCJ Split 2 Main Stage in July and earned an offline slot at the Season Finals in Tachikawa. The same circuit had Yuya Tegoshi as support supporter, with T.N.T.'s "RADIANT" as the cheer song.
Behind the season, Riot tightened competitive integrity. Patch 13.01 in July added penalties for rank manipulation and global Discord integration, and Riot later reported that its Vanguard Anti-Boost system, live in VALORANT since July 2026, had led to action against 296,416 accounts. Anticheat lead Phillip Koskinas disputed a user's claim that a used CPU carried a prior owner's ban, saying hardware bans last four months at most.
The game itself kept moving. Season 2026 Act 4 added the map Summit, set in a Chinese mountain academy, and the 3v3 Retake mode, alongside the Blackspire Collection and a new Battle Pass. Riot then revealed Hush at the Champions Shanghai Grand Final, a Duelist from Guangdong Province whose telekinesis kit arrived in Patch 13.09 on October 28. The same patch buffed Warden, adjusted Clove, and rewrote ability descriptions. On November 5, Riot released a 24-stamp VALORANT Voice Anime set for LINE at 350 yen, illustrated by Wakuta, marking Hash's launch.
Outside the game, RIDDLE ORDER suspended its VALORANT division on October 19 as JoxJo and gyen left, ending a run that included four consecutive domestic titles. Evil Geniuses, the Champions 2023 winner, said it will halt all team operations on November 2. Joe Ziegler, a former VALORANT director at Riot, left Bungie in July.
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On November 5, Riot Games GK released VALORANT Voice Anime Stamps Vol. 2 for the LINE messaging app. The set has 24 stamps with voice, including Jett's "Babang!! Babang!!", Raze's "Dokkaan!!", and a flying kiss from the newest agent, Hash. Illustrations are by Wakuta, and the set costs 350 yen. Riot says the release commemorates Hash's launch.
Riot Games added the new agent Hush to VALORANT on October 28, 2026, in Patch 13.09. Hush is a Duelist from Guangdong Province who uses telekinesis: she can steer thrown abilities in midair, pull and stun enemies with Displacement, and levitate all agents in range with her ultimate, Suspension. The same patch buffed Warden, adjusted Clove, and rewrote ability descriptions.
A nine-second clip of FENNEL HOTELAVA player SereNa noticing the camera mid-match and waving with a smile drew more than 17,000 likes after the official VALORANT Champions Tour account posted it. The clip was shared widely during the Game Changers Championship 2026 in São Paulo. SereNa, a South Korean player who joined FENNEL HOTELAVA in 2026, reacted on her own account with surprise at the attention.
Evil Geniuses CEO Chris DeAppolonio announced that the organization will fully halt competitive activities and day-to-day business operations as of November 2, 2026. EG won the VALORANT Champions 2023 world title that August, but the roster that won it, including Demon1 and Ethan, transferred or left as investment and sponsors withdrew. DeAppolonio said sponsorships and top-level costs left responsible operations impossible. Players on all rosters may negotiate transfers now, and VALORANT players and coaches can sign elsewhere once the 2026 season ends on November 2.
RIDDLE ORDER announced on October 19, 2026 that its VALORANT division will suspend activities as of that day. JoxJo and gyen leave the team as their contracts expire. The org credited JoxJo with in-game leadership and gyen with strong individual play, and thanked the players, coaches, and staff who competed since 2024, a run that included four consecutive domestic titles.
LOUD beat Team Vitality 3-1 in the Grand Finals of VALORANT Champions Shanghai on October 18, taking the 2026 season title. The team overturned a 3-9 deficit to win the first map and closed out the series on Haven. In the post-match press conference, erde, the youngest IGL to take MVP, said the team had been angry about its own play and talked it out behind the scenes.
Riot Games revealed Hush, a new Duelist for tactical shooter Valorant, on October 18 at the Grand Final of Valorant Champions Shanghai. Hush is described as a Duelist from China with long pink hair and is counted as the game's 30th agent. The agent joins the roster on October 27, local time. A trailer titled "Fall into the void!" shows the character moving quickly over short distances, curving the path of thrown grenades, and pulling enemies toward a single point. A separate short video on the official YouTube channel details her abilities: Telekinesis pulls weapons and the Spike to her from a distance and works switches from farther away than usual; Displacement and Flashbulb can be curved with the crosshair after being thrown, the first pulling enemies in its blast radius and the second blinding with a flash; Flow draws her toward a placed anchor at high speed; and the ultimate, Suspension, throws a controllable orb that makes all players in its area float when it detonates.
A Reddit user says a used Ryzen 7 5800X3D bought on Kleinanzeigen on September 21, 2026, left them unable to play VALORANT, claiming Riot support told them the chip was on Vanguard's ban list over the previous owner's cheating. Riot anticheat lead Phillip Koskinas said he could not find the ticket and that hardware bans last four months at most.
Riot Games published a Japanese-language account of how its Vanguard Anti-Boost system detects smurfing in VALORANT and League of Legends. The system, introduced to League of Legends in September 2025 and to VALORANT in July 2026, has led to action against 296,416 accounts. Riot says about 9% of accounts playing ranked matches on a given day are sub-accounts, and that more than half of those are harmless.
Vspo! announced that a travel edition of its official program Vspo GG will run at the GALLERIA booth at Tokyo Game Show 2026, which opens September 17. Two sessions are set for September 20: Street Fighter 6 from 12:30, presented by GALLERIA, and VALORANT from 15:00, supported by Riot Games. The booth also hosts a VRChat session and a Street Fighter League JAPAN 2026 cheering session.
Streamer Kato Junichi will face the senior pro gaming team Matagi Snipers in VALORANT on September 13 at 19:00. Kato proposed the matchup during his September 1 Twitch stream. His team currently includes Yuyuta, Koku-nii, and Daso, with remaining slots to be filled by beginners to balance against the seniors' Iron to Silver ranks. Matagi Snipers' players for the match are not yet announced.
RIDDLE's Minty, who participated in the special show match at the VCJ 2026 Split 2 Season Finals on July 26, said in an interview that his future is undecided but he wants to continue playing VALORANT. The show match, held separately from the main tournament, pitted the "2ND CAREER" team led by ZETA DIVISION's crow against the pro gamer team "TEAM VCJ," which included Minty. After losing in the tournament leading to the playoffs, Minty took about two weeks off from VALORANT, stepping away from the game during the off period. He resumed practice once his participation in the show match was confirmed, approaching the match while regaining his feel. Minty named REJECT as the team he is paying attention to, and Dep and BRIAN as notable players. He noted his closeness with BRIAN over the past one to two years, praising BRIAN's solid thinking about VALORANT and his reputation as an in-game leader. Minty described his own strength as being a "mood maker" who can lead the team when in good form and raise team spirits when not. He called this season "a very frustrating year," citing his role as an "older brother" to two younger teammates.
Joe Ziegler, game director of Bungie's extraction shooter Marathon, announced his departure from the studio on July 17. Del Chafe III will succeed him as game director. Ziegler, a former VALORANT director at Riot Games with a 12-year tenure there, joined Bungie in 2022. He stated he will move to a new role, with details to come. The Marathon development team will continue communication through its X account.
Riot Games released VALORANT Patch 13.01 on July 15, 2026. The update reduces vulnerability for Iso after Double Tap, extends Yoru's Gatecrash duration and makes Fakeout clone equip the last weapon. The Outlaw's rapid-fire interval and recoil are increased. A new system penalizes rank manipulation with suspension, demotion, and reward reversal. Discord integration launches globally July 22.
The Philippine Department of Education's MATATAG Curriculum includes a Grade 10 unit on esports and digital literacy. Recommended materials include Valorant, League of Legends, Minecraft, and Tekken. Students will learn competitive gaming skills, event organization, and online etiquette. The curriculum is being phased in from 2024, with full implementation by 2028.
REJECT finished first in the VALORANT Challengers Japan 2026 Split 2 Main Stage with a perfect 7-0 record, the only undefeated team. The win grants them an offline slot in the Season Finals on July 25-26 at Arena Tachikawa Tachihi and the right to choose their opponent. The Season Finals champion earns a spot in VCT Pacific Stage 2 Play-ins.
A retrospective on the 2023 VALORANT Masters Tokyo finals highlights FNATIC's back-to-back international win, Evil Geniuses' rapid rise with Demon1, and Paper Rex's top-4 run after losing their new ace to visa issues, relying on substitute CGRS for a dramatic playoff push.
Riot Games launched VALORANT Season 2026 Act 4 on June 24, adding the new map Summit set in a Chinese mountain radiant training academy. The map features deployable walls that block sightlines and movement for the round. A new 3v3 mode Retake focuses on post-plant scenarios with randomized loadouts. Summit is available in competitive queue immediately with reduced RR loss for losses in the first two weeks, and a Summit-only queue for seven days.
Riot Games revealed the Blackspire Collection, a new skin series for Valorant, on June 21, 2026. The collection includes the Phantom, Sheriff, Spectre, Ares, and a melee weapon called Divide. It will launch on June 25, 2026, at the start of Season 2026 Act 4. The skins feature a design that combines science fiction with mystical elements. Alongside the Blackspire Collection, a new Battle Pass will go live on the same day. The Battle Pass offers limited items: the Skyreaper Ghost weapon skin, the Recovery Squad Card player card, and the Forgotten Spray. The Blackspire Collection and Battle Pass are part of a larger Act 4 update that also introduces a new map, Summit, and a new game mode, Retake. Summit is set in a Radiant Training Academy in a mountainous region of China, associated with the agent Sage. It features deployable walls that block sightlines and movement. Retake is a 3v3 mode where the spike is already planted at the start of each round.
Yuya Tegoshi has been appointed support supporter for VALORANT Challengers Japan 2026. His band T.N.T.'s song "RADIANT" will serve as the tournament's cheer song and will be played at the Season Finals on July 25-26, where T.N.T. will also perform. Tegoshi wrote the lyrics, which include references to VALORANT.