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Riot Games have announced a number of updates to the Path to Pro in VALORANT, with Challengers EMEA headlining the changes
VALORANT’s 2024 Esports season is continuing, with Stage 2 going live across the regions last week. But looking to the future, Riot Games has announced a series of changes for 2025. The Path to Pro is seeing a number of changes across VCT Challengers, VCT Game Changers, Premier EMEA, and the VALORANT Regional Circuits.
Here’s everything you need to know about the journey to VCT.
VALORANT Challengers EMEA: Inter-Regional Competition
The biggest changes come from the VALORANT Challengers events. The sub-VCT tier of regional play was how some made their way into VCT.
Notably, Team Heretics' Mert “Wo0t” Alkan and Karmine Corp’s Marshall “N4RRATE” Massey were particular success stories of the developer highlighted. To further improve this integral part of the EMEA ecosystem, a series of changes are being brought in.
The biggest change is the introduction of VALORANT Challengers EMEA. VCT is seeing a global shift to Three-Stage structures in 2025. So, the top teams from each EMEA region at the end of a stage will progress to Challengers EMEA.
This will be a chance for the various regions to measure each other and compete against a variety of regional styles of play after every stage. This will also be a great opportunity for fans.
They can watch the best upcoming talents in EMEA compete against each other. Unfortunately, the ping difference means that MENA teams will only compete in Stage 3 of VALORANT Challengers EMEA. Their teams will compete in a playoffs event during the first two stages.
How do Challengers teams compete in Ascension?
With the new system, VALORANT Challengers in EMEA will still give chances to the best teams to compete at VALORANT Ascension and earn their ticket to VCT EMEA.
There will, however, be a switch to a points-based system in 2025. The top teams will be rewarded with performance-based points throughout the season. And these points will become the basis for Ascension invites.
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Italy and Portugal Join VALORANT Challengers Spain
To sync up with the EMEA Premier zones and create a more competitive league, Italy and Portugal will be joining Challengers Spain: Rising in 2025. To give these players the best Path to Pro, Challengers Spain will not consider any players from Italy or Portugal as imports.
Challengers Spain will have eight teams in 2025. With two new countries joining, a new distribution of invites has been created:
The wildcard spots will be handed out by Riot Games based on various criteria like team stability, impact on the ecosystem, etc. The Qualifying tournament on the other hand, will see the remaining teams across the three current leagues compete together.
VALORANT Regional Circuits 2025
Following its introduction in 2024, Premier will continue to act as the primary Path to Pro for VALORANT EMEA. But given VRCs' history, the devs have re-confirmed VRC’s role in the system.
Teams will also be enabled to compete in both Premier and VRC throughout the year, allowing players even more opportunities to compete.
Game Changers: Express Lane
Game Changers' impact on VALORANT Esports, especially in EMEA, can not be understated. Especially with G2 Gozen’s success story having competed in Challengers DACH.
As mentioned in theglobal announcement, a new ‘Express Lane Mechanic’ will be introduced. This will allow Game Changers teams to compete in Open Qualifiers for the Challengers Leagues without missing out on Game Changers events.
Challengers Stage 3 Events in 2024
Following the conclusion of Ascension, VALORANT will see a number of events as part of Challengers Stage 3 in EMEA. Here are the available details for the upcoming events in 2024:
