VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026 Preview: Will Fnatic lose their crown?

Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) EMEA Kickoff 2026 kicks off on January 20, with a new triple-elimination format that will decide the three teams to qualify for VCT Masters Santiago.

The remaining nine teams will play EMEA Clash, which will pit VCT and Valorant Challenger League teams against each other.

With the new season looming and a plethora of roster moves in the offseason, how are the teams looking ahead of VCT EMEA Kickoff kicking off?

Fnatic

Fnatic remain the favourites for EMEA Kickoff 2026, despite the loss of Timofey ‘Chronicle’ Khromov to Vitality.

Under Jake ‘Boaster’ Howlett, the roster still seems to command a tactical edge against their opposition, showing much more considered and slow map control that gives way to success on the server.

That success saw them finish runners-up at three separate international tournaments in 2025 – Masters Toronto, EWC, and VCT Champions 2025.

While Fnatic are undoubtedly EMEA’s leading powerhouse, their regional form does not quite match their international supremacy.

The roster won EMEA Stage 1 last year, but finished 3rd/4th and 5th/6th in EMEA Kickoff and Stage 2, respectively.

While Fnatic’s Champions qualification was already assured by Stage 2, undoubtedly the priority for the roster, elimination at the hands of GiantX is not what we expect from the elite team.

The overall picture is that, while Fnatic’s form is essentially assured at International LANs, their domestic form is less stable, potentially influenced by factors such as motivation and preparation.

Whether the roster has sharpened minds in the face of greater challenge isn’t clear, but they will be needed to fend off a major shift of power in VCT EMEA.

Vitality

In signing Chronicle, Vitality have made a serious statement of intent both for VCT 2026, but also for their overall organisational ambition.

Regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Chronicle has been a driving force in Fnatic’s success.

Chronicle joins former Fnatic teammates, Nikita ‘Derke‘ Sirmitev, in the roster. That may help make the transition to form faster for the player.

However, in signing Elias ‘Jamppi‘ Olkkonen and Dawid ‘PROFEK‘ Święć the roster has three new pieces, including Jampii as IGL.

Unfortunately, the intended main roster piece, Ștefan ‘Sayonara’ Mîtcu, cannot play in Kickoff due to his age, meaning Vitality will play with a stand-in sub in Bartosz ‘UNFAKE’ Bernacki.

Overall, the picture of Vitality is that it is a hugely exciting project, but it is a project, not a reality today.

The team absolutely has the capability and talent to challenge Fnatic for the top spot, but expecting their best form at Kickoff may be somewhat ambitious.

Their goal will be to decrown the top dogs by the time VCT Champions 2026 runs around, and challenge for the title there.

Team Heretics

In contrast to the three-change Vitality, Team Heretics is one of the more stable VCT EMEA rosters, with only Berkcan ‘Comeback’ Şentürk joining in favour of Dominykas ‘MiniBoo’ Lukaševičius.

Team Heretics showed that they are extremely good at their best last year, with their Esports World Cup victory showing the innate firepower in the roster.

Yet, the roster’s best is not always on display, and that will be something that they hope their roster change can alleviate.

Going into EMEA Kickoff 2026, they may well be the team best-placed to rival Fnatic, this time not only in the number of times they finish second place.

GiantX

Running it back in 2026, GiantX are arguable in the best position amongst any of the teams to deliver immediately.

The core of the roster, which was secured in the spring of last year, has had ample time to bed in.

Eduard-George ‘ara’ Hanceriuc, Karel ‘Flickless’ Ivo Maeckelbergh, and Grzegorz ‘GRUBINHO’ Ryczko shifted the org’s outlook to an EMEA Stage 2 runners-up placement.

7th-8th at VCT Champions 2025 reinforced that improvement, while still pointing towards room to grow.

They may be the ‘best of the rest’ outside of the big three of Heretics, Fnatic, and Vitality.

Team Liquid

Liquid are another roster that made almost wholesale changes in the offseason, with Georgio ‘keiko’ Sanassy moving to NRG, and Patryk ‘paTiTek’ Fabrowski and Nikita ‘trexx’ Cherednichenko benched.

The signings of Dominykas ‘MiniBoo‘ Lukaševičius, Semyon ‘purp0‘ Borchev, and Wayne ‘wayne‘ Chang complete the depleted roster.

The signings are not without their upside, namely removing functional players for younger functional players with the upside of potential.

However, it is really in the loss of keiko where one gets the feeling that Liquid will take a significant competitive step back from the EMEA Stage 2 victory.

Liquid can be assured that similar changes last year led to late-season success. If the roster is to flourish, it will flourish later in the year.

Karmine Corp

Another roster with three changes, as Hazem ‘avez‘ Khaled and Dmitrii ‘SUYGETSU‘ Iliushin are joined by Burak ‘LêwN‘ Alkan, Bogdan ‘Sheydos‘ Naumov, and a new face to EMEA, Dastan ‘dos9‘ Zhumagali.

The roster definitely has the talent to put the cat amongst the pigeons, and provide an upset or two.

In that sense, the tournament nature of Kickoff could benefit KC more than the league formats of Stage 1 and 2 might.

With dos9 coming from VCT Pacific, and Sheydos and LêwN coming from KOI and BBL, respectively, the team has Tier 1 credentials.

Therefore, the roster is in a good position to start strong when so many of their opponents will be bedding in rookies.

When the roster comes up against the big hitters, it may wilt, but it may take a big hitter to knock them down.

Gentle Mates

Gentle Mates are only contesting VCT EMEA 2026 due to somewhat of a miracle from their perspective, due to the expulsion of KOI.

The process that followed resulted in Gentle Mates securing a partner spot, allowing for the organisation to plan beyond just this year and look to the future with hope.

It seemed that in 2025 relegation weighed heavily on the roster, which could not get matches over the line despite several competitive encounters.

In 2026, the new roster will at least not have the same pressure, albeit on the eve of VCT’s promised revamp in 2027.

Despite the bonus of being back in the VCT, Gentle Mates’ roster is still largely a Tier 2 roster, with the exception of Martin ‘marteen’ Pátek.

The opening contest against BBL will be an interesting test of where their level is.

FUT

Eray ‘GAIS’ Sarıkaya’s return to coaching status may be the most important aspect of FUT’s offseason, as the team have looked their best when at their most disciplined and system-based.

Ata ‘ATA KAPTAN‘ Tan and Okan ‘KROSTALY‘ Alaçam supplement the roster, who suffered an overall regression last year.

Eray ‘yetujey’ Budak and Doğan ‘xeus’ Gözgen may get the plaudits, but it is in GAIS’ relationship with Furkan ‘MrFaliN’ Yeğen that we may see the best of the roster.

Still, the roster’s limit is probably more in that 5th-6th range, with a worse result expected if they are not at their very best.

NAVI

Kyrylo ‘ANGE1’ Karasov moves to coaching for the 2026 season, with the veteran IGL now hoping to get a greater influence over the NAVI roster.

The team’s prospects are amongst the most debated ahead of VCT EMEA 2026, with some putting the roster towards the lower end, and some putting them up amongst the top teams.

Which side will be right in that argument may depend on the showing of Dawid ‘Filu’ Czarnecki, whose inconsistent promise left pundits with more questions than answers at KOI in 2025.

The team’s overall firepower is arguably superior to any previous roster, in part because of ANGE1’s decision to step away.

But ANGE1’s impact, found in his ability to read and control games, must translate from coaching to the server if they are to reach their potential.

BBL (+ PCIFIC)

BBL replaced their entire roster with that of parnet team, BBL PCIFIC. That raised issues with Riot’s own promotional process; however, the developer decided that the players ultimately could not be denied the opportunity to step up.

That roster is young, hungry, and supremely talented, resulting in their promotion, but they are effectively still an academy roster.

Most pundits have the roster in the middle of the pack, which may prove to be somewhat demanding for a team which averages only 19 years of age.

As luck would have it, the former BBL PCIFIC team make their debut for BBL against PCIFIC.

As for PCIFIC, the team still has no official roster, even at this eleventh hour. Take that as whatever omen you wish.

ULF

ULF’s roster also fell afoul of VCT’s age restrictions, meaning that Eren ‘sturNN’ Oduncular and Demir ‘d3mur’ Boğa will stand in.

The subs replace Ömür ‘echo’ Şenol and Efe ‘s0pp’ Tur, depriving ULF of two of their five pieces, which dominated EMEA Ascension.

The overall picture is a very rough one for the young talents, considering their starting matchup against Vitality.

Over the year, the individuals who blew away all in front of them in Tier 2 should shine through, even if the results are unremarkable.