The first Europe, Middle East and Africa VALORANT Champions Tour Game Changers tournament starts its main event Monday.
The 32 participating teams have qualified through the swiss open bracket and are seeded into the upcoming tournament. Fans can catch EMEA Game Changers Series 1 as it begins on the main VALORANT esports Twitch and YouTube channels starting at noon ET at the start of the week.
EMEA Game Changers Series 1 participants
This tournament’s crop of participants still includes many of the main teams from last season along with a crop of teams with new organizations and free agent squads. G2 Gozen and TENSTAR Nova, the winners of last year’s tournaments, both made it out of the swiss qualifiers as G2 took the top seed with a 6-0 record and highest round differential. The only other team to go undefeated in the qualifying stage was Rix.GG Lightning, which claimed the second seed.
Eighty teams participated in the open qualifier, and the only notable squads not to qualify for the main event were Besiktas Esports Female and the free agent team instalocked. Game Changers staples like SuperMassive Blaze Female, Guild X, BBL Queens and Oxygen Esports also made the cut along with recently signed Alliance.Coven. The newly-signed squad’s core played in every EMEA Game Changers event in 2021 as the free agent team ChatBanned.
Tournament format
The event is a best-of-three match format — expect for the grand final which is a best of five — and features a double elimination bracket. The winner of the event will also qualify for the Game Changers international LAN set for November. The next EMEA Game Changers events are set for May and September start dates.
Games for each day of the main event start at noon ET as the tournament will run through Jan. 31- Feb. 5, with the grand final as the only game on the last day.
