VALORANT: Riot unveils the 2026 Challengers EMEA roadmap

Riot Games has revealed the main features of the 2026 VALORANT season in EMEA, announcing a new series of Cash Cups for the Game Changers circuit and a brand-new tournament bringing together VCT and Challengers teams. The North American publisher also confirmed that Premier will remain the in‑game competitive gateway toward regional leagues, with two promotion windows to the Challengers throughout the year.

The 2026 Challengers EMEA season will remain structured around three main tournaments, as first reported by Sheep Esports, taking place from March 16–31, May 18–28, and June 22–July 6. Ahead of Stages 1 and 2, each regional league will host an additional qualifier to determine the 14 teams advancing to the tournaments: two from each league, except NORTH//EAST, which will send four. Depending on the regional organizers, these qualifiers may be fast group stages, simple double-elimination brackets, or another format, but tournament organizers will not be required to run a full league format as seen in 2025.

The third edition of Challengers EMEA will serve as the highlight of the season, effectively replacing Ascension and determining which Tier 2 teams will earn a spot in VCT. Sixteen teams will take part: eight from the overall points leaderboard and eight top-performing teams from the regional Challenger leagues. Of those eight, two will come from the NORTH//EAST and MENA regions, and one each from France, DACH, Spain, and Türkiye.

They will battle for three spots in the VCT EMEA Stage 2 Play‑Ins, chasing the dream of qualifying for Champions. The last slot will be given to the winner of an LCQ to be held right after. The LCQ will feature all Challenger Teams, according to the Esports Product Manager of VALORANT EMEA.

The path to Shanghai will still be a long one—only the top 4 Play‑In teams will advance to Stage 2 playoffs. To claim their ticket to Worlds, teams will then need to win that final segment entirely or risk seeing their whole run, no matter how impressive, come to an end just before the finish line.

A new piece of the 2026 puzzle, the VALORANT EMEA Clash will take place from February 16–26, featuring both eliminated VCT EMEA Kickoff teams and the top Challengers lineups. The event will fill part of the competitive gap between Kickoff and Masters Santiago and marks the first time official cross‑tier matchups of this kind will be held within the VALORANT ecosystem. The competition will resume on January 5 for the Challengers Leagues with a Kickoff, which must be completed before February 12 and will determine which teams will face the VCT rosters.

On the Game Changers front, Riot is keeping a structure similar to 2025, with a Kickoff followed by three stages featuring ten teams each. The main addition is the creation of the Game Changers EMEA Circuit, combining regional tournaments and monthly online Cash Cups open to all teams within the ecosystem.

These Cash Cups will award prize money, ranking points, and, most importantly, a pathway to the Game Changers EMEA Stage 3 Play‑Ins for top-ranked squads. Alongside this, two Promotion/Relegation tournaments will offer opportunities to reach the top tier of Game Changers for Stages 2 and 3, through the various national and regional leagues. To qualify for Stage 1 of the EMEA league, Riot will organize a large open qualifier in early January, though details have yet to be announced.

Finally, Riot confirmed the continuation of Premier, it's integrated in‑game competitive mode, which will maintain the 2025 structure. The system will once again feature two major promotion windows during the year, giving the best Premier rosters the chance to rise into the Challengers leagues.