EMEA Masters Winter 2026 Group Stage Draw

It’s time for the EMEA Masters Winter 2026. The draw for the group stage of the most high-stakes EMEA Masters tournament ever took place on Monday, March 9, after , , , and earned direct qualification to the Playoffs (Round 2) through the Champions Round. The matches begin on March 10, and the tournament will conclude on April 21. This year’s edition will feature 36 participating teams, with 32 of them divided into eight groups of four.

Each group has been formed using seeding and regional protection rules, designed to prevent early rematches between teams from the same country and to maintain competitive balance. All matches in this stage will be played in a best-of-three format, with subsequent rounds matching winners against winners and losers facing off for a chance at redemption.

Each group will compete in a GSL-style bracket. Only the group winner will advance to the playoffs, meaning three teams per group will be eliminated, a first for the EMEA Masters group stage format. Among all the teams are the top performers from each European ERL, which also includes and (inheriting Los Ratones' status), who dropped from LEC Versus, and will represent the LFL and NLC, respectively, as seed 4 in their respective drawn groups.

This setup is sparking some reactions and surprise, as it creates a potential imbalance in team levels on paper. That's the case for , who find themselves matched against Witchcraft, for example. Their head coach, Nicolas Perez, even highlighted this on X: “They put KCB and the team Bwipo & Friends as seed 4 in their leagues even though they just came from the LEC XDDD. Of course that completely fucks up the balance of the groups, and we get Witchcraft in ours.”