The lower final at Champions Shanghai saw Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #1 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen PROFEK Dawid Święć Derke Nikita Niko Sirmitev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu take on 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #1 Cryocells Matthew Panganiban Asuna Peter Mazuryk vora Jordan Pulwer Timotino Timothée Lavigne Dupont bang Sean Bezerra for the first time ever at a VCT event. Vitality emerged victorious in 3-1 fashion, eliminating the North American squad and earning themselves yet another rematch against LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 lukxo Lucca Travaioli DaviH David Cruz Darker Sebastián Castro Cicuamia erde Roberto Lobos tkzin Enzo Zimiani loan in the grand final.

The four-map series played out on Split, Summit, Lotus, and Ascent. 100T won Split 13-5, but Vitality responded with consecutive wins on the remaining three maps.

Split was the most one-sided map in the series. The score was close at first, at one point drawing 4-4, but the Thieves peeled away with solid holds and proactive pushes through A Sewer to go up 8-4.

On the other side of halfime, 100T produced an unstoppable attack side, converting the bonus and winning every remaining round but one to take it 13-5. Timotino paved the way forward on Neon, particularly on attack, and ended with a server-high 22/10/6 KDA and 331 ACS.

Summit was the next map, pitting Vitality's faster Neon-Phoenix composition against 100T's more contact-heavy Sage-Chamber one. Both sides traded blows evenly in the first half, with Vitality blending patient retakes and proactive Mid reclears to respond to 100T's site hits. Vitality took a slight 7-5 advantage after Sayonara won a 1v2 in round 11 to respond to Cryocells ' 1v3 in round 10.

Despite dropping the pistol round, Vitality were in control to start their attack, winning four consecutive rounds to go up 11-7 and then 12-8. 100T pulled the score slightly closer, but the comeback stayed out of reach as Vitality won out 13-10. Chronicle topfragged with 21 kills on Neon, while the rookie Sayonara was a safe pair of hands with 20 kills and a 1.52 rating.

Lotus was the closest map of the four. Vitality initially led 7-3 on their defense by claiming early picks, which forced the remaining 100T players to funnel into the B site and allowing Vitality to retake with an advantage. From there, a pistol into a bonus widened the gap to 11-5.

100T slowly began to mount a comeback, responding with six consecutive rounds that largely featured confident A Rubble fights to take it all the way back to 11-11. A timeout from the Vitality coaching made the difference in the end as Vitality slowed things down, taking the last two rounds and the 13-11 win off of patient, grouped sieges on C. Sayonara, who flexed over to Chamber on the map, continued to display strong form with 24 kills.

The final map was Ascent. The two teams effectively reversed their compositional identities from Summit, with Vitality this time running Sage-Chamber into 100T's Jett-Phoenix. Jamppi 's Sage proved to be a key piece throughout the map with multiple creative wall plays, one of which secured Vitality a pivotal low buy in round six.

100T, after a Timotino thrifty 4K in round seven and both pistol round wins in the map, still held the lead 8-6. However, they struggled to cope with Vitality's heavy mid pressure in the buy rounds; a major turning point came in round 18, where Jamppi used a wall with an unseen gap to lurk through Mid, allowing his team to go up 11-8 before winning 13-9.

Sayonara led his team statistically with 70 kills over the course of the series, while Chronicle secured his third career Champions grand final with three separate organizations.

From the Press Room

This section will be updated with quotes from the post-match press conference.

Up Next

Vitality and LOUD will go head-to-head tomorrow, Oct. 18 for the third time in the final match of the 2026 season. The winner will settle the score and lay claim to their destiny as champions.