Rumblings of Europe: VCT EMEA 2023 Tournament Preview

VCT EMEA Tournament Format

10 EMEA Riot-partnered teams have been selected late 2022 to compete in the EMEA International Leagues. Those teams are:

• Fnatic
• Natus Vincere
• Team Liquid
• Team Vitality
• Team Heretics
• KOI
• Giants Gaming
• FUT Esport
• BBL Esports
• Karmine Corp

These 10 teams will compete during the regular season in a single round-robin stage, with each series set to be played in Bo3 format. This promises a total of 90 games played during the regular season. Once that has concluded, the top 6 performing teams will progress into a double-elimination styled playoffs. The top 4 teams from Playoffs will progress to VCT Masters Tokyo (extra slot gained from Fnatic’s LOCK//IN win). The top 3 teams from Playoffs will also qualify for VCT Champions 2023 at the end of the year.

As the only split of 2023, it will be year-defining in a team’s success since spots for both Masters and Champions will be on the line. However, Riot has also reimplemented the Last-Chance Qualifier system, which will be held in July. That will include one more spot for a team to attend Champions 2023.

The VCT EMEA regular season will be held at the Messe Berlin Charlottenburg in Berlin. Teams will play on LAN (Local Area Network).

 

VCT EMEA Tournament Schedule

VCT EMEA will be running games from Wednesday to Friday on the times stated below. The exception will be Week 1, which will kick off the season and include a ‘super week’ (five straight days of games). Week 2 onwards will include only the three straight days mentioned.

Wed [8pm GMT]

Thurs [5pm GMT | 8pm GMT]

Fri [5pm GMT | 8pm GMT]

*total of five games will be played during the regular season weekly

**During Week 1’s ‘Super Week’, every day will include 2 games, and the times will follow the regular 5pm and 8pm GMT.

 

Regular Season: 27th Mar- 19th May

Playoffs: 23 May- 28th May

Last Chance Qualifier: 18th July- 23rd July

 

VCT EMEA Week 1 Schedule

27th Mar (Mon)

Fnatic vs Giants [5pm GMT]

KOI vs NA’VI [8pm GMT]

28th Mar (Tue)

Team Heretics vs FUT [5pm GMT]

Team Liquid vs Team Vitality [8pm GMT]

29th Mar (Wed)

NA’VI vs Giants [5pm GMT]

Karmine Corp vs BBL [8pm GMT]

30th Mar (Thur)

Team Liquid vs FUT [5pm GMT]

KOI vs Team Vitality [8pm GMT]

31st Mar (Fri)

Fnatic vs BBL (5pm GMT)

Team Heretics vs Karmine Corp (8pm GMT)

 

VCT EMEA Roster Performances Predictions

The top performers from EMEA are Natus Vincere and current international champion Fnatic. Both rosters are eyeing the top of Valorant and are well poised to claim the throne as the best team. Fnatic currently have one of the strongest considered Valorant rosters in the world, and their newest addition Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov is gathering acknowledgements by fellow competitors as one of the likeliest candidates for current best Valorant player. Natus Vincere meanwhile, have largely maintained their previous EMEA dominating roster, with four of the five pieces still. Their latest addition, Turkish star Mehmet "cNed" Yağız İpek continues to impress pundits with his ability to find first picks and raw talent.

There are also a number of rosters who show serious potential, however, are not quite as close to the peak as the previous two. They are Team Liquid, Giants Gaming and Team Vitality. Team Liquid have yet to show their true mettle, however, they have immense potential due to the raw stats of their roster on paper. Giants is a sleeper powerhouse roster with standout talents from the old EMEA guard of G2. With especial note to names like Žygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas and Kirill "Cloud" Nehozhin, they can truly contend for one of EMEA's best.

Finally, we have Vitality, a roster that until now, many still have failed to recognize the potential of. Despite a strong placement at the Red Bull Home Grounds #3 tournament at the end of 2022 that included many other notable teams such as 100 Thieves and Cloud9, and their performance at VCT LOCK//IN, the lack of household names on their roster takes away from their brand recognition within the greater Valorant sphere.

Lastly, the wild card of EMEA is likely to be Karmine Corp, who have already displayed greater potential during VCT LOCK//IN than previously expected. The obvious notable standouts on that roster would be Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom and Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom. However, the other members of the roster are no slackers either. Based on their VCT LOCK//IN performance, their EMEA future would depends largely on whether "ScreaM" can evolve well into a prominent IGL to lead this squad.

 

Image credit: VCT EMEA / Valorant Esports