KRÜ Blaze win Game Changers Championship from lower bracket, ending Gentle Mates’ unbeaten run

KRÜ Blaze came through the lower bracket to beat Europe's Gentle Mates GC over five maps in São Paulo, giving LATAM its first Game Changers Championship title. They are also the last winners of the standalone event, as next year's final moves to Champions.

KRÜ Blaze are the 2026 VALORANT Game Changers Championship winners. They edged Gentle Mates GC 3-2 at the Riot Games Arena in São Paulo on 1 November. No Latin American team had lifted the title before. No team had ever won it from the lower bracket either.

The event ran from 22 October, with 10 teams competing. Gentle Mates earned US$100,000 as runners-up. Shopify Rebellion Gold took US$70,000 for third place and MIBR GC US$50,000 for fourth.

KRÜ Blaze recovered from an upper-bracket semi-final defeat

KRÜ took the long route. They beat Gen.G GC 2-1 in the upper-bracket quarter-finals on 23 October. A 2-0 loss to Shopify Rebellion Gold on 27 October then dropped them into the lower bracket. They answered with clean sweeps of Team Liquid Brazil and MIBR GC. On 31 October they beat Shopify Rebellion Gold 3-1 in the best-of-five lower-bracket final.

The grand final swung back and forth. Gentle Mates took Haven 13-5 before KRÜ levelled on Abyss by the same score. KRÜ led the third map 10-2 at half-time. Gentle Mates fought back, but KRÜ closed it out 14-12 in overtime. Gentle Mates then won Split 13-8 to force a decider. KRÜ led 11-5 on Ascent and won it by the same margin as Split.

Liquipedia named KRÜ’s Argentine player tok1o as the event’s MVP. Brazilian teammates antG and none became the first Brazilians to win an international tournament held in São Paulo.

The result breaks a pattern. Before 2026 the title went to G2 Gozen for Europe in 2022, Shopify Rebellion for North America in 2023 and 2024, and Team Liquid Brazil in 2025. KRÜ’s own record at the event had improved steadily. They finished 7th–8th in 2022 and 5th–6th in each of the next two years. Last year they came fourth.

Gentle Mates’ unbeaten run ended in the grand final

For European fans, it was a painful near miss. Gentle Mates GC arrived as EMEA’s second seed. The team had not lost a series in São Paulo before the final, according to Esports News UK.

It capped a strong debut season in the circuit. Gentle Mates won EMEA Stage 1 by sweeping G2 Gozen 3-0 on 22 February. They lost the Stage 2 final to SK Nebula on 24 May without winning a map. On 30 August they lost the Stage 3 final to G2 Gozen in a fifth map. Silver in São Paulo leaves them with one title from four finals this year.

The standalone Game Changers Championship ends with KRÜ

The São Paulo final also closes a format. KRÜ are the last team to lift the trophy at a separate event of its own. For the first time, the Game Changers Championship will finish at Champions. Every team that plays at the 2027 Game Changers Championship will receive a payment equal to Gentle Mates’ runners-up prize this year. VALORANT Champions 2027 is scheduled for 16 September to 10 October in Austin.