Riot and Freaks 4U Gaming have unveiled details surrounding Stage 3 of the Valorant Champions Tour for the EMEA region, encompassing Europe, Turkey, and the CIS. Stage 3 will begin on June 28 and end in September with Masters 3 in Berlin.
Headlining the incoming stage is the introduction of the double-elimination bracket format, a much-anticipated that has been seen prominently in North America's VCT circuit, which is organized by Nerd Street Gamers.
Mirroring the previous stage's changes, Stage 3 will feature only two open qualifiers per region, which remain single-elimination brackets with a cap of 512 teams. However, the top 8 teams from the open qualifier will now proceed to the closed qualifier, now featuring 8 invited teams. The top 8 teams from the closed qualifier will then proceed to the first Challengers main event, with the bottom 8 moving on to the second closed qualifier.
The Challengers main events now feature a "double-elimination format," however further details on the format were not revealed in the post. From each Challengers main event, a certain number of teams will proceed to the EMEA Challengers Playoffs, as seen in the graphic below.
The EMEA Challenger Playoffs has been expanded to feature 12 teams, as opposed to 8 teams in Stage 2. The event will be played online. Six teams will be seeded in through Europe, three from CIS, and three from Turkey. The top four teams of the EMEA Playoffs will advance to Masters 3.
While the prize pools for the first two Challengers Main Events have remained unchanged from Stage 2 — with European Challengers boasting €35,000 EUR prize pools and CIS/Turkish Challengers boasting €18,000 EUR each — the Challengers Playoffs prize pool has been decreased from €88,000 EUR to €85,500 EUR, despite the increase of teams from 8 to 12.
Invites have not yet been announced for the EMEA closed qualifiers.
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