Riot held its draw for the 2025 Americas Kickoff, featuring a 12-team, double-elimination bracket for the first time.

The draw was divided into two pools. The first pool had all four teams from the region that made Champions 2024. Those teams received a bye from the first round, automatically qualifying for the upper bracket's quarterfinals. The second pool had the region's remaining eight teams. The teams were drawn against each other in the opening round, with winners facing teams from Pool 1.

The 2025 Americas Kickoff bracket. (Photo by Riot Games)

The draw brings forward a few interesting matchups, from cross-country rivalries to former international foes duking it out.

Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #21 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le icy Jacob Lange yay Jaccob Whiteaker vs. LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 dgzin Douglas Silva v1nny Vínicius Gonçalves pANcada Bryan Luna tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira

The two teams, who famously clashed in a five-map, lower final at Champions 2023, will butt heads to open their respective 2025 seasons. Both rosters have an almost entirely new look. While tuyz and cauanzin remain from LOUD's 2023 team, Evil Geniuses has an entirely new five, with head coach potter the only constant since then. They will play for the chance to face KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #2 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro .

MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #3 artzin Arthur Araujo xenom Eduardo Soeiro cortezia Gabriel Cortez nzr Agustin Ibarra aspas Erick Santos vs. 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #9 zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk

MIBR underwent possibly the biggest rebuild of the 2024 offseason, letting go of all but one player and constructing a new roster centered around Brazilian superstar aspas . Meanwhile, 100 Thieves retain much of their 2024 roster, with the one change being former M80 M80 North America Rank #5 Kyu Mirel Braco Hrustemovic Sato Eduardo Kenzo Nagahama Sato bao Okeanos Anthony Nguyen bdog Brandon Sanders standout zander replacing bang , who moved to Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #3 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid . The winner of this match will play Sentinels, who finished fourth at Champions.

NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #4 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold vs. Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #8 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong mitch Mitch Semago neT Michael Bernet OXY Francis Hoang

NRG's busy offseason began with the team parting ways with crashies , Demon1 , and head coach Chet . They've rebuilt, picking up a pair of Tier 2 standouts in Verno and mada while picking bonkar to lead the charge as their new head coach. Cloud9 also had their fair of roster shuffling this year. They let go of vanity and runi , who had storied pasts with the organization, and picked up v1c and Rossy as their in-game leader to round out their five. However, a few weeks after losing in the grand final of RedBull Homeground, they parted ways with Rossy and signed mitch , who was last with the team in 2022. The two teams will clash to take on a star-studded G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf in the upper quarterfinals.

2Game Esports 2Game Esports Brazil Rank #2 gobera Vitor Gobo Zap Brenno Roberto pryze Luis-Henrique Viveiros lz Luiz Reche spike Rodrigo Lombardi silentzz Caio Morita vs. FURIA FURIA Brazil Rank #4 heat Olavo Marcelo raafa Rafael Lima mwzera Leonardo Serrati havoc Ilan Eloy Khalil Khalil Schmidt

In a clash between Brazilian teams, FURIA will go head to head with 2Game Esports to welcome them to VCT. 2G, who defeated M80 in the grand final of Americas Ascension, boast an all-Brazilian roster. To circumvent the absence of Duelist player spike , who is ineligible due to being under 18, they picked up former Brazilian Challengers player gobera . FURIA still have some work to do in terms of roster rebuilding. They let go of kon4n , xand , and nzr after their season ended, and have just three players on their roster. Awaiting the winner is LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee nataNk Nathan Bocqueho , who are also based in South America but boast a more diverse roster that's been bolstered by Demon1 and nataNk .

At least year's Americas Kickoff, which was held with a three-group format that ended with a four-team single-elimination bracket, Sentinels defeated LOUD in five maps in the grand final. They qualified for Masters Madrid, where they defeated Pacific team Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) yoman Chae Young-moon (채영문) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) to lift their first international trophy since 2021.

Americas Kickoff action will begin on January 16, with the two finalists of the event qualifying to Masters Bangkok.