Riot Games reveal VCT EMEA format and schedule ahead of Stage 2

Craig Robinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 25/06/2026

VCT EMEA Stage 2 has been officially announced, running from July 15th through to the Barcelona Finals at the end of August. Four Challenger teams will join EMEA’s elite in what promises to be a high-stakes run to determine the region’s representatives for VALORANT Champions Shanghai.

Here’s what the VCT EMEA six week schedule is looking like

First up is the Groups. The Group Stage takes place from July 15th to August 2nd. The 12 VCT EMEA teams will be split into two groups of six, with matches running five show days a week from Wednesday to Sunday, featuring two best-of-threes per day. The top four teams from each group advance straight to Playoffs.

The teams in each groups are as follows:

From August 6th to 16th, the play-ins take place.  Four qualified Challenger teams enter a double-elimination bracket alongside the eight remaining VCT EMEA teams who didn’t advance directly. The Challenger teams are decided via the Challenger format, taking place from 22-29 June, with its playoffs running from 30th June to 5th July. Three of those Challenger spots are filled by Challengers EMEA Stage 3, with the final slot going to the winner of the Last Chance Qualifier, which takes place on 12 July. The bracket often works with the early rounds having the higher and lower seeded teams in each group duke it out, before then facing off against the corresponding winners from the other group in the ultimate qualification match.

Following all of that, the playoffs are set to take place from 20th to 23rd of August. Eight teams will compete live on the Arena Stage in Berlin. Tickets for Playoffs week go on sale 8th July at 17:00 BST, which you can find on Riot’s ticket holding site.

Finally, teams will head to the Barcelona Finals from August 28th to 30th. The second stage wraps up with a three-day weekend at the Olímpic Arena in Barcelona, crowning the Stage 2 champion and finalising EMEA’s representatives for VALORANT Champions Shanghai.

Valorant teams will also use the new Berlin stage that has been built for the start of the Stage, per the article posted last month on X. LEC is yet to share its schedule, so we shall find out which days both of Riot’s esports are on-site to share the stage and streaming studios later on with the both seasons.

It will be interesting to see how the European scene develops for the second stage of the season. Fnatic has shaken up its roster after missing out on Masters London, where it would have been the home team. Vitality got its revenge against Heretics in the first rounds of playoffs, yet Heretics will want to defend its crown. We also can’t ignore FUT , who performed well, and will be confident of another strong performance with Shanghai Champions being the ultimate goal.

Craig Robinson, Senior Editor

Craig began his career with Esports News UK back in 2015/2016, looking to write about a passion while studying at Manchester Metropolitan University. He stayed there for several years before moving on to other websites to begin his career after graduating. Now he's back, covering esports adjacent topics and UK stories.

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