Valorant Challengers esports changes announced for 2025

Riot Games has today announced changes coming to the Valorant esports ecosystem across Challengers, Game Changers, and Premier in EMEA.

In particular, a new tournament will now end each stage, known as Challengers EMEA. This tournament will see the top two teams from each Challengers League compete against each other for Championship Points. This new system will decide who makes Ascension – the tournament that decides which team will compete in the top-tier VCT the following year.

Valorant Challengers in EMEA will get a new three-stage structure.

And the third stage of the UK and Nordics league, Valorant Challengers North Polaris, will get underway from November later this year. The eight-team double elimination tournament will run through until December. 

Additionally, from 2025 Italy and Portugal will be joining Challengers Spain. 

There’s a summary of the changes in the video below, and more info in the sections further in this article.

Valorant Challengers in 2025 across EMEA

Format

Next year, Valorant Challengers in EMEA is evolving. Riot is introducing a new three-stage structure, with each stage split into two distinct parts.

Each stage will see teams initially compete in regular league play, with specific formats for each league to be determined at a later date. Then, the top two teams from each Challengers League from that stage will progress to an all-new tournament – Challengers EMEA – which will see the best teams from across the region compete against each other at the end of each stage.

Riot said in a press release: “The new structure will maintain the benefits of the current Challengers Leagues, but also offer the best players more opportunities to hone their skills against one another, and offer fans more opportunities to watch the best teams across EMEA compete. That said, due to ping differences, MENA will only compete in the Challengers EMEA tournament during Stage 3, with their teams competing in a Playoff tournament during Stage 1 and Stage 2.”

Championship Points & Ascension

Valorant Challengers will continue to provide the best teams with a chance of competing at Valorant Ascension, and gaining a ticket to the upper-tier VCT EMEA, which has the likes of Fnatic and Heretics.

In 2025 however, Riot will switch to a points–based system to decide which teams will compete in Ascension, with teams gaining points based on their performance throughout the season. Further details about Championship Points and Ascension will be revealed later in the year.

Italy and Portugal Join Challengers Spain

As part of the changes to Challengers, Italy and Portugal will be joining Challengers Spain: Rising, ‘to create a stronger and more competitive league where the best teams from each country can compete against each other’.

To ensure players in these countries still have the best Path to Pro, Challengers Spain will not consider any players from Italy or Portugal as imports. Additionally, this change will allow each Challengers League in EMEA to match its respective Premier Zone, ‘resulting in a better connection throughout the whole ecosystem’, Riot says.

Challengers Spain will have eight teams in 2025. Due to Italy and Portugal joining Challengers Spain: Rising, Riot wants to ensure that the top teams from all three current Challengers Leagues have the opportunity to compete in the league.

Places in the league will be awarded to:

• The top four teams in Challengers Spain: Rising (based on total league points in 2024)
• The top team from Challengers Italy: Rinascimento (Ascension 1st Seed)
• The top team from Challengers Portugal: Tempest (Ascension 1st Seed)
• One wildcard spot
• The winner of a qualifying tournament

The wildcard spot will be awarded to a team that meets various criteria, such as the stability of the team, their impact on the ecosystem and more.

Meanwhile, the qualifying tournament will be open to all remaining teams across the three current leagues to earn the final place in the tournament. Further details will be shared in the coming weeks.

The Continuation of VRCs

Following its introduction in 2024, Premier will continue to act as the preferred path to pro within the EMEA region.

“That said, we know that VRCs have played a positive role in nurturing competition amongst our players,” Riot said. “So, we want to re-confirm that VRCs will continue to enable teams to qualify for promotion/relegation tournaments. In addition, we’ll enable teams to compete in both Premier and VRC throughout the year, giving aspiring pros even more opportunities to compete and hone their skills.”

Valorant Game Changers: Express Lane Mechanic

As mentioned in Riot’s recent global announcement, a new ‘Express Lane Mechanic’ will be introduced, allowing Game Changers women’s teams to compete in Challengers League Open Qualifiers without having to miss out on overlapping Game Changers events.

“We remain committed to providing consistent opportunities for women in Valorant Esports, supporting the growth of the Game Changers scene and the players competing here, and hope that this change allows us to see more teams fighting for Challengers League spots in the future,” Riot added.

Valorant Challengers Stage 3 in 2024

There are tournaments coming to the ecosystem during Stage 3 of 2024, which will begin following the conclusion of Ascension.

Details can be found in the table below.

Related article: Riot to ‘invest heavily’ in UK and Nordic market as Valorant console beta launches – sources

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.