VALORANT VCT Challengers Expectations and Info

This week the final of the VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 1 Challengers will take place in the EMEA region. This region consists of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The playoffs of this VALORANT championship are very exciting, because not only the prize money of 200.000 Euro is at stake, but also tickets for the international Masters tournament will be awarded.

Group A

Last month, the twelve participating teams of the VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 1 Challengers fought in a round robin pool stage for a good ranking before the play-offs. The big surprise of the group stage was undoubtedly FunPlus Phoenix. Although this team was considered a contender for the play-offs, only a few experts had predicted a first place in Group A.

The big favorite in this group was the Russian team Gambit Esports, which has since been renamed M3 Champions due to the Russian-Ukrainian war. M3 Champions also had a strong preliminary round and ended up 4-1, just like FunPlus Phoenix.

However, the latter won the mutual duel, which means that M3 Champions will have to compete in the playoffs one round earlier. Besides M3, Team Liquid also qualified for the next round. Natus Vincere, BIG and LDN UTD, who were in this group, were also considered to be weaker teams beforehand.

Group B

Fnatic is considered one of the best VALORANT teams in Europe and maybe even worldwide. The team more than lived up to its role as favorite, winning Group B in dominant fashion with five victories and a total score of 10:2 in the maps.

In this pool stage it defeated, among others, the reigning world champion Acend. However, they finished fifth behind G2 Esports, BBL Esports and Guild Esports and that means a ticket to the playoffs is out of the question for them. Despite a better ranking than Acend, BBL Esports was also eliminated. SuperMassive Blaze finished last in the pool without a single win.

Masters

After the group stage, the playoffs begin. In this round, M3 Champions will play Guild Esports first, and the winner will face FunPlus Phoenix. The other match will be between G2 Esports and Team Liquid. The winner of this duel will face Fnatic. The first match will take place on Tuesday at 16:00, and the second match at 19:00.

One day later, Funplus Phoenix and Fnatic will be in action. Although there is a hefty €200,000 in prize money up for grabs, the lineups will battle it out for the top three spots. These spots will entitle the teams to participate in the Masters, which will take place next month in Reykjavik. This tournament is a kind of mini world championship, with an as yet unknown prize money at stake. Last year, the prize money was around 650,000 euros.

Teams from all the major regions take part in the Masters. In addition to the EMEA region, this includes teams from Korea, Japan, North America, Brazil, Latin America and Southeast Asia. This type of tournament takes place three times a year and is a very prestigious event, not only for the prize money, but also for qualification points for the VALORANT Champions Tournament, the World Championship, which will take place in the summer.

Favorite Region

The EMEA region is currently considered the strongest region in the world. At the last World Championship, VALORANT Champions 2021, the top three finishers all came from this region. Bronze went to Team Liquid, silver to Gambit Esports and Acend became world champion. So fans are in for an exciting week.
The Masters will start on April 10 and last for fourteen days, with the finals taking place on April 24. The tournament will be held in Iceland.