With a new VALORANT Champions Tour year comes a new format for each region’s Challengers stage. Teams will now compete in round-robin league-style group stages before a final playoff bracket.
Once again, the European, Turkish, and CIS regions will all meet in the EMEA Challengers stage to duke it out for a limited number of spots at the first Masters event of the year. The first EMEA Challengers stage will feature a collection of teams from closed qualifiers stemming from Europe, Turkey, and CIS, in addition to a handful of invited teams.
Here’s a list of all the teams set to compete in the first 2022 VCT EMEA Challengers stage, which begins on Feb. 11.
Invited teams
- Acend
- Gambit Esports
- Team Liquid
- Fnatic
The four EMEA teams that performed the best last year and at Champions have been directly invited to compete in the first 2022 EMEA Challengers stage.
The group is led by reigning world champions Acend, who appear to be bringing everyone back for 2022. All of the players on the roster signed extensions the day after hoisting the trophy with the exception of cNed, but he’s not expected to be heading anywhere else.
They’re joined by Masters Berlin champions and CIS conquerors Gambit, as well as two of the consistently best European rosters in Team Liquid and Fnatic. At time of writing, Fnatic is the only team with an unfinalized roster, still needing a fifth after parting ways with Doma (now with TENSTAR).
European, Turkish, and CIS closed qualifier teams
- Guild Esports (EU)
- BIG (EU)
- G2 Esports (EU)
- LDN UTD (EU)
- SuperMassive Blaze (TR)
- BBL Esports (TR)
- FunPlus Phoenix (CIS)
- Natus Vincere (CIS)
EMEA Challengers One groups
The 12 competing teams have been sorted into two groups.
- Group A: Gambit, Team Liquid, BIG, FPX, LDN UTD, Na’Vi
- Group B: Fnatic, Acend, SuperMassive Blaze, Guild, BBL Esports, G2
The top three teams from each group will advance to the playoffs, with the no. 1 team from each group receiving a bye to the second round. The bottom team from each group is relegated to the VCT Promotion tournament.
