The
2026 VCT EMEA
competitive season starts on January 20th. 12 teams from the EMEA region will face off in the coming days, but which of these teams has the best odds to be called champions, and which teams should the fans keep their eyes on during this VALORANT tournament?
The VCT EMEA teams are fighting for the
three spots at the upcoming VALORANT Masters Santiago, as well as Championship Points. While three teams will qualify for VALORANT Masters Santiago 2026, only one team will be crowned as the champion of VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026.
Qualification for VALORANT Masters Santiago (three spots)
Prize money to be announced
10 Championship points up for grabs
Team
12
Venue
Riot Games Arena, Berlin, Germany
Format and schedule
Image: VALORANT/Riot Games
The 2026 VCT EMEA Kickoff starts on January 20, 2026, at 11:00 Am EST / 5:30 pm CET.
Triple Bracket Playoffs Stage
The 12 VCT EMEA teams will play in a triple-bracket format. Teams will need to lose three matches to be eliminated.
Teams that qualified for VALORANT Champions 2024 will receive a bye to Upper Bracket Round Two.All matches, excluding upper finals, middle finals, and lower finals, will be a best-of-three.
The upper finals, middle finals, and lower finals will be a best-of-five series.
The Champion of VCT EMEA Kickoff will receive four Championship points.
The runner-up of VCT EMEA Kickoff will receive three Championship points.
The team that finishes in 3rd place during VCT EMEA Kickoff will receive two Championship points, while the 4th-place team will receive one Championship point.
The top three teams will qualify for VALORANT Masters Santiago, Chile.
Betting tips: Favorites to qualify to Masters Santiago
FNATIC
The first
VALORANT betting
favorite on our list is an org that is on its way to create a legacy in VALORANT Esports:
FNATIC.
During the 2025 season, they were the
best team by far in the VCT EMEA region.
While their start to the year wasn’t ideal, failing to qualify for VALORANT Masters Bangkok, it was how they played the rest of the year that makes them one of the favorites.
FNATIC started the second half of the 2025 season quite strongly. They did so by winning VCT EMEA Stage One.
During VALORANT Masters Toronto, they
reached the grand finals
and faced off against Paper Rex. In the grand finals, they lost with a scoreline of 3-1. They continued their run of form during the Esports World Cup, reaching the finals of the VALORANT X EWC tournament. During the grand finals, they faced off against Team Heretics and lost 3-2.
During VALORANT Champions 2025, they once again
beat all odds and reached the grand finals, coming face-to-face with NRG Esports. In an incredible grand final, filled with comebacks and shockers,
FNATIC once again lost 3:2. FNATIC finished as runners-up in three VALORANT international tournaments last season. Following VALORANT Champions, chronicle left the team, and Sylvain “Veqaj” Pattyn joined FNATIC.
Both
Boaster
and
Crashies‘ contracts with FNATIC will come to an end following this season. With this season being the final season for Boaster, it does feel like FNATIC will make sure to win as many trophies as they can this season.
Odds are provided by third parties for informational purposes only and are subject to fluctuation.
Team Heretics
During the 2025 season, Team Heretics was
the only team from the EMEA region to win an international VALORANT tournament. As stated earlier, Team Heretics defeated FNATIC in the grand finals of VALORANT X EWC 2025. This was the first major tournament that the organization won since being a part of the VCT Partnership league.
During VCT EMEA Kickoff 2025 and Stage One, the team finished in 3rd and 2nd place, repectively.
VALORANT Masters Toronto wasn’t the best tournament for the organization, as they finished in 11th place.
During VCT EMEA Stage Two & VALORANT Champions 2025, they finished in 5th place. Following the tournament,
Miniboo left the team
after playing for the org for three seasons. Team Heretics instead signed
Berkcan “ComeBack” Şentürk.
This year, Team Heretics is one of the
best VALORANT teams
on paper during the VCT EMEA 2026 season. The core of
Boo,
Wo0t, and
Benjyfishy
is one of the best trios in VALORANT Esports. It will be interesting to see these players playing together once again and maybe reach another grand final together.
Team Vitality
The third team we feel will qualify for VALORANT Masters Santiago is
Team Vitality. They are the
reigning champions of VCT EMEA Kickoff.
In the 2025 VCT season, the team defeated Team Liquid 3:2 to be crowned champions.
During VALORANT Masters Bangkok, they
failed to build on that momentum
and failed to qualify for the playoffs stage.
In the playoffs of 2025 VCT EMEA Stage One and Two, Team Vitality failed to reach the top 4. Due to this, the team’s VCT EMEA 2025 season was cut short.
Following the primary season, the team first signed
Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov. The ace duelist of FNATIC was now a part of Team Vitality. Team Vitality then announced the signings of Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen and Dawid “PROFEK” Święć.
In the 2026 season, we will see
Derke
and
Chrolincle
reuniting as a duo since their time at FNATIC. The one thing going against this team is that they haven’t played a lot of off-season tournaments together. Thus,˜ the players might not have the ideal synergy they would need to help win the championship.
Best underdog pick
Image via Team Liquid on X (@LiquidValorant)
Our pick for the underdog of VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026 is none other than
Team Liquid. Folllowing the VCT 2025 season, the team once again went through a bit of a rebuild.
Last season the team was the only team from VCT EMEA to qualify for all international VALORANT tournaments. During all the 3 VCT EMEA tournaments they finished in the podium spots, while becoming the champions of VCT EMEA Stage Two.
The reason they are in our underdog pick is due to the fact that this team doesn’t have the
same core of players as in their 2025 season.
Trexx,
PaTiTek
and
keiko
left the team following VALORANT Champions 2025.
Prior to the start of the VCT 2026 season, Team Liquid announced the signings of
Dominykas “MiniBoo” Lukaševičius,
Semyon “purp0” Borchev, and
Wayne “wayne” Chang.
During the off season Team Liquid didn’t play any off season tournaments, thus there isn’t much information on the playstyle of the new rosters.
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