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With the first-ever international major on the horizon, the brackets for the Valorant Champions Tour 2021 EMEA Stage 2 Challengers Finals have been announced.
The Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) was announced in late December as a pyramid structure competition stretching for the whole of 2021. The whole tour comprises three stages, each having its regional Challengers leading to the big majors.
All of this leads to the top 16 teams globally competing in the Valorant Masters at the end of the year.
Taking the sheer number of teams in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region into consideration, Riot Games has decided to hold a collective Challengers Finals for the whole EMEA region.
There are eight slots available for teams to qualify from different regional Challengers. There are four slots for the European (EU) region, while for the Turkey (TR) region, there are three slots. As for the CIS region, there is only one slot.
Valorant Champions Tour EMEA Stage 2 Challengers Finals teams and format
Among the four slots reserved for the EU region, two qualify from the VCT EU Stage 2 Challengers 1, while the other two qualify from Stage 2 Challengers 2.
As for the TR region, two qualify from the VCT TR Stage 2 Challengers 1, while the other team comes in from Stage 2 Challengers 2.
For the CIS region, only the winner of the VCT CIS Stage 2 Challengers 2 qualify for the upcoming Valorant Champions Tour EMEA Stage 2 Challengers Finals.
The eight qualified teams are:
- FunPlus Phoenix (EU Challengers 1)
- Guild Esports (EU Challengers 1)
- Fnatic (EU Challengers 2)
- Team Liquid (EU Challengers 2)
- Futbolist (TR Challengers 1)
- Oxygen Esports (TR Challengers 1)
- BBL Esports (TR Challengers 2)
- Gambit Esports (CIS Challengers 2)
The tournament features a group stage with two groups in the GSL format, leading to the playoffs. Each group will have two rounds that will lead to two games between the winners and losers of the previous matches.
The winners of these matches battle it out to determine the first and second berths of the respective groups.
The first and second teams from each group then play against each other in the semifinals of the playoffs. Both semifinal series will be of best-of-3 format, leading to the grand finals, a best-of-5 affair.
This Valorant tournament boasts a total prize purse of €85,000 along with the all-important seeds for the upcoming Valorant Champions Tour Stage 2 Masters hosted in Reykjavík, Iceland.
The top two teams from this tournament qualify for the Iceland major to battle against the best from all the other regions.
