VCT EMEA Stage 2 announces key information, dates and format

After Paper Rex lifted the Masters Toronto 2025 trophy in June, the VALORANT EMEA esports scene is preparing for another competitive split with VCT EMEA Stage 2 2025.

Before the final stage of the 2025 season begins in July, Riot Games has revealed everything there is to know about VCT EMEA Stage 2’s schedule, format, map pool and how fans can tune into the action.

VCT EMEA Stage 2 will follow the same format as Stage 1. Instead of teams competing to qualify for Masters Toronto, teams will be competing for a chance to qualify for VALORANT Champions, Riot Games’ first-person shooter title’s season-ending event.

The 12 teams are split into Group Alpha and Group Omega and will play each other in a best-of-three round robin format. The top four teams from each group will advance to the Playoffs.

Teams that win their group will automatically advance to the upper bracket semi-final while those which finish the group stage in second and third will earn a place in the upper bracket’s first round.

The fourth-placed team will begin the Playoffs from the first round of the lower bracket.

Playoffs will use a best-of-three series format until the lower bracket final and the Grand Final, which will use a best-of-five format to determine the Stage 2 winner.

The top two teams from the Stage 2 Playoffs will automatically qualify for Champions Paris, while the remaining two slots will be determined by championship points earned across the entire season.

Fnatic leads the standings with 14 points to its name after finishing runner-up to Paper Rex in the Masters Toronto Grand Final.

Stage 2 begins on July 16th, 2025, to start five consecutive weeks of matches which conclude on August 15th. Six days after the group stage has concluded, the Playoffs will take place from August 21st to 24th.

The upper bracket final, lower bracket semi-final will be played on August 29th, with the lower bracket final occurring on August 30th.

The 2025 VCT EMEA season will conclude on August 31st with the Grand Final.

Tickets for the first three weeks of regular season matches taking place at the Riot Games Arena in Berlin are available to purchase now. Tickets for the remaining weeks will be released every Wednesday at 5 PM BST.

VCT EMEA Stage 2 will see a change to the map pool. Following the arrival of Corrode, the map will make its competitive debut, while Bind returns to the rotation.

As a result of the adjustment, Pearl and Split will be rotated out of action. The Stage 2 map pool is as follows:

The 12 teams competing in Stage 2 of VCT EMEA are the same as Stage 1. The lineup features the league’s ten partner teams along with two teams that qualified from the 2023 and 2024 editions of Ascension.

The full team list can be found below:

Fans can tune into VCT EMEA Stage 2 through the competition’s Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok channels.

In addition to the official broadcasts, a variety of content creators will be co-streaming matches to share their insight along with an alternative perspective of EMEA’s top tier of VALORANT esports.