EMEA VALORANT Regional Leagues explained

Riot Games has announced the VALORANT Regional Leagues in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. These leagues are a step below the main VALORANT professional circuit, but teams participating will have a chance to play against top competition.

The new regional leagues, all eight of them, will start with qualifier matches on Jan. 24 and the first split will begin Feb. 14. The leagues will run across the first two stages of the VALORANT Champions Tour 2022 season.

The eight regional leagues are going to start in Spain, with players from Portugal and Italy also eligible to compete. The other leagues will feature players from France, United Kingdom together with Ireland and Nordic regions, Poland and Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States, Middle East and North Africa, Turkey and DACH. Each league will be run by different tournament organizers except for France and DACH, which will both be put on by Freaks 4U Gaming.

How the regional leagues work

Each VALORANT Regional League will feature a regular season and a playoff section. At the end of VCT Stage 1, the winner of each VRL will qualify for the new VCT Promotion Tournament, which will pit all eight winners and the two worst teams from VCT EMEA Stage 1 in a tournament, with two spots in the main VCT Stage 2 circuit.

For Stage 2, the VRL winners will qualify for a different tournament, the VRL EMEA finals. The eight winners will fight it out to determine the best VRL team in Stage 2.

The tournament organizers for each region are: LVP for Spain, Promod Esports for UK, Ireland and Nordics, FRENZY for Poland, GIG.Me for CIS, Calyx Gaming for MENA, ESA Esports for Turkey and the aforementioned Freaks 4U Gaming for France and DACH.

Fans of League of Legends may recognize this structure from the esports’ European Regional Leagues that have a similar setup, albeit without the opportunity to join the top competition.

The leagues will start their qualifiers on Jan. 24, as league action begins on Feb. 14.