VCT EMEA Barcelona Finals: FUT, Karmine Corp, Liquid and Fire Flux remain

Sixteen teams took part in VCT EMEA Stage 2 and four are left: FUT Esports, Karmine Corp, Team Liquid and Fire Flux Esports. Riot Games, the publisher of Valorant, named them on Monday, August 24, 2026 in its guide to the Barcelona Finals, the three days that close the league's season from Friday, August 28 to Sunday, August 30 at the Olimpic Arena in Badalona.

The fourth name is the unusual one. Fire Flux Esports is not one of the twelve teams of the league. It entered the stage this month through Challengers, the circuit below it, and it is now two series away from a place at Champions, the world championship of Valorant, which opens in Shanghai on September 24.

VCT EMEA is one of the four international leagues of the Valorant Champions Tour, the game's worldwide professional circuit, for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The league plays in Berlin, and Riot's format page for the stage called these finals the first time the league goes on the road.

From sixteen teams to four

The stage began on July 15, under the format Riot published on June 25. Twelve league teams played a three-week group stage in two groups of six. The top two of each group went straight to the playoffs. The eight others were sent to the Play-Ins, a qualifying bracket where four Challengers teams joined them.

The Play-Ins did not go the league's way. Sheep Esports reported on August 17 that seven of the eight league teams in that bracket were eliminated: Eternal Fire, GIANTX, Natus Vincere, PCIFIC Esports, Gentle Mates, Fnatic and Team Heretics, the winners of Stage 1. FUT Esports was the only league team to come through. The three other places went to Challengers teams: Enterprise Esports, Eintracht Frankfurt Esports and Fire Flux Esports.

Under the June format, the Challengers teams had the longer road. They started in the first round of the upper bracket, while the league teams placed third and fourth in their groups received a bye, a free pass, into the second round. A double-elimination bracket removes a team at its second defeat; Fire Flux Esports used that margin and qualified through the lower bracket on the last day, according to Sheep Esports.

The four Challengers places had been decided earlier in the summer. Three went to the top three of Challengers EMEA Stage 3, which started on June 22, and one to the winner of a Last Chance Qualifier, Riot's format page said.

How the four finalists got here

The playoffs were played in Berlin from August 20 to 23. The bracket published by Sheep Esports after the Play-Ins shows the four teams that had waited there since the groups: Team Vitality, Karmine Corp, Team Liquid and BBL Esports.

Fire Flux Esports beat two of them. It eliminated Team Vitality and then BBL Esports, Sheep Esports reported on August 26, calling it the last Play-In team still standing.

Team Liquid took the long way. It lost its opening series to FUT Esports, dropped to the lower bracket, and stayed alive by beating the two other Challengers teams, Eintracht Frankfurt Esports and Enterprise Esports.

FUT Esports and Karmine Corp arrive without a defeat in the playoffs. Karmine Corp's presence is the sharpest turn of the stage, measured against the table Riot printed on June 25, before the first match of Stage 2.

Karmine Corp is not on the chart: it stood at the bottom of the twelve, level with PCIFIC Esports on 0 points. Fire Flux Esports was not in the table at all: it lists the twelve league teams and their Championship Points, the points collected through the season.

Friday to Sunday, series by series

Riot's guide gives the shape of the weekend, and Sheep Esports the pairings.

A best-of-three is won by the first team to take two maps, a map being one full game of Valorant. A best-of-five needs three.

The winner of Karmine Corp against FUT Esports goes directly to Sunday's Grand Final. The loser gets a second chance on Saturday, against the winner of Team Liquid against Fire Flux Esports. For those two, Friday is already an elimination match.

On Saturday the Lower Bracket Final is preceded at 16:00 Central European Summer Time by a showmatch between content creators of Spain and France, a single map, with Mixwell and ZeratoR as captains. On Sunday the Catalan artist Mushkaa performs at 17:00, after the opening ceremony and before the Grand Final. An award for the most valuable player of the final series is presented by OMODA, which Riot describes as the first automotive sponsor of VCT EMEA.

Two places at Champions still open

Riot's format gives the league four places at Champions. The winner of the Upper Bracket Final and the winner of the Lower Bracket Final qualify, the winner of the Grand Final takes the region's first seed, and the third and fourth seeds go to the teams with the most Championship Points over the year.

Two of the four names are already known. FUT Esports and Team Vitality are qualified, Sheep Esports wrote on August 26, which leaves what it called the final two qualification spots for the weekend. Team Vitality is qualified although Fire Flux Esports knocked it out in Berlin. In June it shared the lead of the points table with FUT Esports.

The points still to be won are larger than those of Stage 1. Riot's June page gave an indicative scale of 8 points for the Stage 2 winner, 6 for the runner-up, 5 for third place and 4 for fourth, on top of 1 point for each group match won. The Stage 1 playoffs paid 6, 4, 3 and 2, according to the format the league published in March.

For the three others still playing, the same outlet set out the routes.

• Karmine Corp has one way in: reach the Grand Final. Its low total of points offers no other.
• Fire Flux Esports must win twice, against Team Liquid on Friday and in the Lower Bracket Final on Saturday. Reaching the Grand Final guarantees its place.
• Team Liquid qualifies by beating Fire Flux Esports, which would secure a top-three finish. If it loses, it can still get in on points, where it stands third, provided FUT Esports reaches the Grand Final and neither Karmine Corp nor Fire Flux Esports does.

One team that is no longer playing is watching too. Team Heretics, eliminated in the Play-Ins, keeps a slim chance on points, according to Sheep Esports, and a single defeat of Team Liquid or FUT Esports would end it.

The first finals away from Berlin

Riot announced the location on February 12. Its announcement presented the event as VCT EMEA leaving Berlin for its Stage 2 Finals and as the first major arena event in the league's history. The Olimpic Arena, in Badalona, part of the Barcelona metropolitan area, was built for the 1992 Olympic Games.

The same announcement said that, for the first time, Challengers teams would have the opportunity to qualify for the league's playoffs. Six months later one of them has gone through those playoffs to the finals.

The rest of the stage was produced differently too. On May 29, Riot said it was adding a second, broadcast-only stage inside its Berlin arena, the Studio Stage, with no tickets sold, so that its League of Legends and Valorant leagues could run at the same time. Stage 2 began there on July 15, with matches on weekends throughout, and moved to the main hall, renamed the Arena Stage, for the playoff week.

What spectators need to know

Tickets were still on sale through Ticketmaster in Spain when the guide appeared.

Bags must be no larger than an A4 sheet and are checked at the entrance. Outside food and drink are not allowed, nor are professional cameras.

A Fan Fest is free to attend, the guide says. Cosplay is permitted, with costumes that leave the wearer recognizable and props no longer than one meter.

The league's usual commentators work the event, joined by Spanish broadcasters who present and commentate in Spanish for the hall. Riot also lists creators showing the matches from the venue on their own channels, a practice called co-streaming, in Spanish, French, English, German and Turkish.

After Sunday

The Grand Final ends the league's year. In Riot's season plan, published in December 2025, Stage 2 was the last chance to qualify for Champions, and its playoffs were to be played as a live event in a new city in each league.

For the teams that qualify, the next date is September 24 in Shanghai. For the league itself, the format ends with this season. Riot detailed on June 18 a 2027 circuit in which long league play gives way to tournaments called Cups, with places for teams from Open Qualifiers beside the partner teams.

The first series in Badalona is Karmine Corp against FUT Esports on Friday.

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