Everything to know about the VRL 2022 Finals

The VALORANT Regional Leagues 2022 Finals began on July 28 and runs until Aug. 5. Seven teams from the Europe, Middle East and Africa region compete at the finals for their share of the €150,000 ($153,092) prize pool and the prestige of being the top VRL team and region.

In Stage 1, the VRL Finals qualified the top two teams directly into the EMEA VCT Challengers event; that’s not the case this time around. The plan to begin franchising in 2022 means that the teams will no longer be competing for promotion. That said, there’s still money to be won and reputation to be garnered.

The Teams

Each of the seven teams at the finals won their respective regional league:

• Case Esports (VRL Spain: Rising)
• Team Vitality (VRL France: Revolution)
• Excel Esports (VRL Northern: Polaris)
• TENSTAR (VRL East: Surge)
• Team Falcons (VRL MENA: Resilience)
• FUT Esports (VRL Turkey: Birlik)
• Angry Titans (VRL DACH: Evolution)

Over the course of Stage 2, VRL Spain, France and Turkey proved to be the most popular regions based on viewership, according to Esports Charts. Their representatives — Vitality, FUT Esports and Case Esports — are all strong contenders to win the whole VRL Finals.

Vitality and FUT Esports both overcame and upset tough regional rivals to reach the finals. In particular, Vitality beat an extremely strong MAD Lions team in the VRL France grand final in a massive 3-0 upset. France is a very strong region and Vitality will be one of the favorites to win it all.

Excel Esports is another team to watch. They were a cut above their competitors in Northern Europe and look like one of the strongest VLR teams in EMEA.

With all that said, these are seven teams who have not matched up against each other much over the course of Stage 2. Any team can come out hot and upset their competition. It’s truly anyone’s game.

The Format

The VRL Final is split up into a group stage and playoffs. In the group stage, the seven teams will be divided into two groups. The top two teams from each group will advance to the playoffs. All matches will be best of three. The group stage runs from July 28-31.

Playoffs will be a double-elimination bracket. The four teams will meet in the upper bracket semifinals and go on from there. All the matches will be bo3 except for the lower bracket final and grand final, which will be bo5. The playoffs run from Aug. 2-5.

Where to watch

All matches will be streamed in English on the primary VALORANT Twitch and YouTube channels. Secondary streams will also be available in Spanish, French, German, Polish, Turkish, Hungarian and Arabic.