VCT Challengers teams are crashing the Tier 1 party, and it’s working

Riot Games' new Path to Champions pathway has proven that, when set up the right way, a healthy, well-functioning ecosystem will give underdogs the chance to crash a closed circuit — and win if they want it enough. At VCT Stage 2, three of the four upstart Challenger organizations that qualified through the EMEA Play-Ins stage have defeated established Tier 1 teams to advance to the Playoffs.

I've always been very open about not being that into @vct_emea VCT, even though I'm a caster

VCT teams are usually playing way to boring, and watching tier 2 has always been way more fun for me @valleague_ne

Nice that someone are calling out the frauds this time @enterprise_esp

— Erik 'Qwikk' Persson (@EPerssons) August 17, 2026