The 2026 VCT season has begun, with the first round of Americas Kickoff underway.

In their first match in VCT Americas, Ascension team ENVY ENVY North America Rank #5 Eggsterr Evan Grady P0PPIN Matteo Weber Demon1 Max Mazanov Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo keznit Angelo Mori took a 2-1 victory against Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #21 supamen Phat Le bao Bao Nguyen Okeanos Anthony Nguyen dgzin Douglas Silva C0M Corbin Lee , while Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #4 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong Zellsis Jordan Montemurro penny Erik Penny OXY Francis Hoang started their season off strong with a 2-0 over LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #11 lukxo Lucca Travaioli Darker Sebastián Castro Cicuamia Virtyy Leandro Moreno pANcada Bryan Luna cauanzin Cauan Pereira .

ENVY finds their first VCT win 2-1 against EG

The opening match of the VCT season pitted the new team on the block against EG. Having risen from Ascension, ENVY was new to the big stage, something that showed in the first map of the series.

Starting on Abyss, EG were completely dominant in the first half. Featuring the new agent Veto for the first time in VCT, rookie bao 's defensive setups alongside dgzin 's prowess on the Outlaw and Operator completely shut down ENVY's attack half. They quickly racked up 10 rounds on the half against the shaky looking ENVY.

Moving to the second half, however, ENVY began mounting a comeback. They brought the final score on the map to a more respectable 9-13, with EG inevitably closing out the map. The momentum had shifted into ENVY's hands, as players like Rossy and Inspire had begun to heat up in the ladder half of the map to give EG a small scare.

While Abyss was ENVY's map pick, they seemed much more warmed up to the stage going into EG”s map pick of Corrode. The map was neck and neck all the way through, but ENVY was able to seal the map on a thrifty win in the final round.

With the map score tied at one, the teams went to Bind for the decider. Riding off their first VCT map win, ENVY jumped out to a 6-0 lead. EG regained their footing however, and brought the score at half up to 5-7. They were looking to tie it at 7-7 with a pistol round win, but their second round anti-eco went awry, putting ENVY back in the driver seat. They rode that one round out to a comfortable 13-9 win, completing their first ever VCT match.

With their win, ENVY will move on to face MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #1 zekken Zachary Patrone tex Ian Botsch Mazino Roberto Rivas Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos in the upper bracket, while EG drops to the middle bracket.

Cloud9 takes care of LOUD in 2-0

The second match of the day saw Cloud9 take on LOUD, both teams with relatively minor changes since 2025. Cloud9, ending last season only one win away from Champions, are still looking to qualify for their first international event of the partnership era. They have maintained a core three, while adding a new IGL in Zellsis , plus a new Sentinel in penny . LOUD, on the other hand, are coming off the back of the season where they only found one win across Stage 1 and 2. However, still believing in their talent, they have kept four out of five of the players from their Stage 2 roster, only adding the rookie Darker from LATAM tier two.

The match started out on Haven, where LOUD jumped out to an early 5-2 lead. However, once Cloud9 got settled, they comfortably won the map 13-7, with OXY delivering a prime performance on Neon.

Map two of Abyss was a much closer affair, and one that LOUD seemed postured to win. lukxo , continuing to build off his impressive rookie season, put up a dominant performance on Chamber.

lukxo's performance gave LOUD the advantage in the map, and were up 9-5 in the second half. However, after a big round from Penny, the second player to feature Veto on the day, Cloud9 was able to fight back into the map. Their attack half went smoothly, winning the map 13-11 to close out the series in a 2-0

Cloud9 will move on to face the reigning Champions NRG in the next round of the bracket.

Americas will continue tomorrow with KRÜ vs. FURIA and 100T vs. LEVIATÁN.