VCT 2025: EMEA Stage 1 could be decisive for some teams, almost guaranteeing them a spot at Champions 2025, while others will have to prepare for the region's final tournament of the year. In this article, we present everything you need to follow and watch VCT 2025: EMEA Stage 1.

General Tournament Information

VCT 2025: EMEA Stage 1 is a regional tournament taking place in Berlin at the Riot Games Arena and will be the second of three events in the European region for 2025. A similar tournament will be held in each of the four regions. This is a closed tournament featuring only twelve partner teams of Riot Games, which is also the event organizer.

Event Date and Format

VCT 2025: EMEA Stage 1 will begin on March 26, by which time the other three regions will have already started competing. The final day of the tournament is May 18, when the grand final will take place, and we will find out the winner. The entire tournament will be played offline at the Riot Games Arena in Berlin, Germany.

The tournament is divided into two stages: the group stage and the playoffs. The group stage will determine eight teams (four from each group) that will compete in the playoffs under a Double Elimination system. All matches, except for the lower bracket final and the grand final, will be played in a best-of-three format, while the final matches will be best-of-five.

Participating Teams

As mentioned above, 12 teams will participate in the event as partners. The list of participating teams for VCT 2025: Stage 1 is as follows:

• BBL Esports
• Fnatic
• FUT Esports
• GIANTX
• Karmine Corp
• KOI
• Natus Vincere
• Team Heretics
• Team Liquid
• Team Vitality
• Gentle Mates (Ascension 2023)
• Apeks (Ascension 2024)  

Team Seeding

The organizers have pre-assigned teams into two groups—Alpha and Omega—with six teams in each. Below, you can see how the groups were formed for the first stage of the tournament.

According to both the community and our own opinion, Group Alpha is significantly tougher than Omega, as it includes stronger teams such as Team Vitality, Fnatic, and Team Heretics. Therefore, it can be considered the "group of death" compared to Omega.

Favorites and Underdogs

After VCT 2025: EMEA Kickoff and Masters Bangkok 2025, a clear favorite has emerged in the European region. Team Vitality, the EMEA Kickoff champion and fourth-place finisher at Masters, is the main contender for victory in Group Alpha and the tournament overall. The team has been showing confident play thanks to Derke, one of the best duelists in Europe, and the experienced Less.

Another strong team is Team Heretics, who, despite failing to qualify for Masters, remain a solid squad. We believe they will either repeat or improve upon their performance at the EMEA Kickoff and secure a slot at Masters Toronto.

It is difficult to determine clear underdogs due to the lack of a significant number of head-to-head matches. However, in our opinion, GiantX and Apeks are the weakest teams in Group Alpha, while in Group Omega, it's MKOI, who, despite their roster updates, haven't shown significant improvement, and Gentle Mates, who have formed an entirely new roster for this season and have yet to prove themselves.

We believe that the updated NAVI roster had enough time over the past few months to build synergy and prepare for Stage 1. They can be considered a dark horse in this tournament—if they manage to make it out of their group, which they have a chance to do, they could confidently dominate the playoffs and qualify for Masters Toronto.

Tournament Prizes

Since this is a regional qualifier, Riot Games, as in previous years, has not allocated a prize pool. Instead, teams will compete for three invitations to the upcoming Masters Toronto, as well as EMEA Points, which will be crucial for qualifying for the World Championship. The prizes will be distributed as follows:

• 1st place – Invitation to Masters Toronto and 5 EMEA Points
• 2nd place – Invitation to Masters Toronto and 3 EMEA Points
• 3rd place – Invitation to Masters Toronto and 2 EMEA Points
• 4th place – 1 EMEA Point
• 5th-6th place – No prizes
• 7th-8th place – No prizes
• 9th-12th place – No prizes

You can follow the tournament and all the events at VCT 2025: Stage 1 in our section, where we will provide timely coverage of all the news and the latest statistics.