Gentle Mates GC fight back from a set down to reach Game Changers final

Gentle Mates GC have reached the grand final of the VALORANT Game Changers Championship 2026 at the first attempt, beating Shopify Rebellion Gold 2-1 in Friday's upper bracket final in São Paulo, Esports Insider reports.

Both sides went into the match unbeaten across every map played at the event, so the result carried extra weight for seeding. Shopify Rebellion Gold took the opening map, which ran 53 minutes, before Gentle Mates levelled the series.

The second map produced the tightest passage of the evening. Shopify Rebellion Gold pulled level at 10-10 before Gentle Mates closed it out 13-11 after 55 minutes to force a decider.

That third map, played on Summit, lasted 57 minutes and finished 13-10 in Gentle Mates' favour, sending the roster of Marti, Nami, Wens, tokameite and berryx through to Sunday's final with a two-map ban advantage already secured.

It is Gentle Mates' first appearance at a Game Changers Championship. They arrived at the upper final having swept both Team Liquid Brazil and MIBR GC 2-0, and had gone into the event off the back of EMEA Stage 3 form that included 2-1 wins over G2 Gozen and SK Nebula alongside a 3-2 loss to G2 Gozen.

Pre-event Elo power rankings had already made Gentle Mates favourites in this meeting, placing them fourth overall with a 1844 rating from a 33-7 record across 40 rated matches. Shopify Rebellion Gold sat sixth on 1809, having gone 40-20 from 60 rated matches.

Shopify Rebellion Gold, competing under interim in-game leader alexis, had themselves arrived in dominant form, having beaten SK Nebula and KRÜ Blaze at the event without dropping a map, and having come through North America Stage 2 with wins over FlyQuest RED (3-1 and 2-1) and SwimTrek Blue (2-0).

The defeat sends them into the lower bracket final rather than straight to Sunday's decider, a repeat of last year's Championship in Seoul, where Team Liquid Brazil beat Shopify Rebellion Gold 3-2 in the title match.

Their next opponent, KRÜ Blaze, has already lost to them once at this event, in the upper bracket semi-final. KRÜ responded by eliminating both Team Liquid Brazil and MIBR GC from the lower bracket, neither of whom took a map off them, to set up Saturday's rematch.

MIBR GC's run ends in fourth place, worth $50,000, while SK Nebula — one of three EMEA teams at the event, and including Scottish player fluxxy — finished joint fifth to sixth for $25,000. Third place in São Paulo is worth $70,000.

Every match beyond the group stage of the ten-team, double-elimination event has been best-of-three, but both the lower bracket final and Sunday's grand final step up to best-of-five.

Riot Games has described this edition, staged at Riot Games Arena, as the last Game Changers Championship to run as a standalone event. From 2027 the Championship moves to Austin, Texas, running alongside VALORANT Champions in the same city between 16 September and 10 October.

Shopify Rebellion Gold face KRÜ Blaze in the lower bracket final on Saturday 31 October at 15:00 BRT. The winner meets Gentle Mates GC in Sunday's grand final, scheduled for 15:00 BRT on 1 November.