KRÜ Blaze Win Game Changers Championship 2026 From the Lower Bracket
|
| Author Competitive Scene
KRÜ Blaze won the VALORANT Game Changers Championship 2026 in São Paulo on November 1, beating Gentle Mates GC 3-2 in a best-of-five grand final. A 0-2 loss to Shopify Rebellion Gold on October 27 had sent them to the lower bracket, and they did not lose another series.
Content
A final that turned on a 14-12 Sunset
Gentle Mates GC took Haven 13-5. KRÜ Blaze answered on Abyss 13-5, then won Sunset 14-12, the longest map of the series at 61 minutes (Esports News UK). Gentle Mates levelled at 2-2 with a 13-8 win on Split, and KRÜ closed the title on Ascent 13-8. KRÜ Blaze were behind only after the opening map, and over the five maps they won 53 rounds to 51. TheSpike.gg supplied the scores and named tok1o MVP, and Esports News UK matches its map winners.
The lower bracket route
| Date | Round | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 23 | Upper bracket | KRÜ Blaze 2-1 Gen.G GC |
| Oct 27 | Upper bracket semifinal | KRÜ Blaze 0-2 Shopify Rebellion Gold |
| Oct 28 | Lower bracket 4/6 | KRÜ Blaze 2-0 Team Liquid Brazil |
| Oct 30 | Lower bracket 5/6 | KRÜ Blaze 2-0 MIBR GC |
| Oct 31 | Lower bracket final (Bo5) | KRÜ Blaze 3-1 Shopify Rebellion Gold |
| Nov 1 | Grand final (Bo5) | KRÜ Blaze 3-2 Gentle Mates GC |
Across the four series that followed the upper bracket exit, KRÜ Blaze won 10 maps and lost 3. The lower final on October 31 was a rematch with Shopify Rebellion Gold, the team that had sent them down, and KRÜ won it 3-1. Shopify finished third.
The upper bracket side
Gentle Mates GC had not lost a series before the final. They beat Team Liquid Brazil 2-0 on October 23, MIBR GC 2-0 on October 27 and Shopify Rebellion Gold 2-1 in the upper final on October 30, a total of six map wins against one defeat. In the final they lost three maps in a single series for the first time in the event, and KRÜ took two of the last three maps.
Rated 16th, champions anyway
Esports News UK put KRÜ Blaze 16th in the Elo rankings at 1757, against 1828 and fourth place for Gentle Mates GC. TheSpike.gg does not repeat the figure, so it rests on that one outlet. The roster of antg, tok1o, none, poniX and micaela collects the champion’s prize, which our calendar listed at $180,000 before the event.
Road ahead
Game Changers was the last VALORANT event on our October to December calendar, and the sources checked for this article did not confirm the first dates of the 2027 season. The full bracket is in our Game Changers Championship 2026 tracker, and the next events in any title are in the esports calendar 2026.
Featured image: Riot Games key art for the VALORANT Game Changers Championship 2026 hype film. Scores from TheSpike.gg and Esports News UK.
ESTNN's tournament desk: results, brackets and the road ahead across LoL, VALORANT, CS2 and Dota 2. Written with AI assistance from official sources and reviewed by the editorial team.