Week 1 Recap: All of the action from EMEA’s Regional Leagues

Feb 21, 2022

Week 1 saw teams from across the continents take to Future Earth and assert their dominance, with each region putting its best VALORANT foot forward.

Miss some of the action? Or just looking for a roundup of each of EMEA’s Regional Leagues? Here’s everything you may have missed during Week 1.

DACH: Evolution

DACH is a region synonymous with innovation, and the first week of Evolution has that in droves. With Angry Titans making use of French Sentinel and sharpshooting menace, Chamber, to score themselves some clean victories in their first series against SPARKX, it’ll be interesting to see how often the squad choose to run the gunsmith in-game.

CIS: Milestone

Hoping to follow in the footsteps of CIS stars and VCT titans, Gambit, CIS’ best regional squads have come together to duke it out for that coveted spot at VALORANT Challengers EMEA Stage 2. While 5MOKES haven’t quite been able to repeat their Qualifier run of dominance, KPI Gaming have stepped up to the plate with dominant wins across a whole variety of maps.

East: Surge

We can almost hear the Polska Gurom! from here, as Poland’s finest sit at the top of the East: Surge leaderboard, closely followed by Czechia’s Entopiq. With relative newcomers l3wandowski leading the pack with Chamber on the frontline, the Sentinel appears to be quite the favorite with our Eastern squads.

France: Revolution

Filled to bursting with some of the biggest names in esports history, France’s Regional League is set to be one of the most competitive. With OG Esports and Team Vitality all topping the charts (but perhaps not as decisively as most would assume with a win and draw each), Team BDS sit in the middle of the pack just waiting to snatch one of the top spots.

MENA: Resilience

MENA’s Regional League is split into two different sections: GGC & Iraq, and Levant & North Africa.

GGC & Iraq

Sitting at the top of the table are Saudi Arabia’s Team Falcons, who so far are yet to drop a map against any of their opponents. Utilizing colorful Duelist Raze to the best of their ability, the squad have dominated their opponents from the get go – even taking down their closest competition, 01 Esports, to claim first place.

Levant & North Africa

Despite being one of the newest regions to join the VALORANT competitive sphere, Levant & North Africa have come out of the gates swinging. While a surrender vote dashed aAa’s hopes of defeating frontrunners Team Majesty, Week 1 was characterized by a series of exciting back and forth matches with Brazilian Duelist, Raze, rearing her head once more.

Northern Europe: Polaris

In a region dominated by some of Europe’s biggest names, it’s hardly a surprise that the likes of Alliance and Excel sit on top of the table – especially given their performance in the recent VCT Challengers EMEA Qualifiers.

With an insanely dominant showing from each squad, barely dropping a round between them, these two have their eyes on that Stage 2 Challengers EMEA spot. Good thing that we won’t have to wait to see these two competing against each other, EXCEL vs Alliance is happening Tuesday 22nd, 18:00 CET

Spain: Rising

Bringing the fire to VCT, the sunbathed paradise of Spain is home to the likes of former First Strike Europe winners, Team Heretics, and relative newcomers, KOI. Despite their histories, however, both have been beaten out by Giants and Team Queso, who have long stories of their own but little success on the international level.

As rivalries grow ever spicier, it’ll be interesting to see if Heretics can reclaim their long lost crown and cement themselves once more as Spain’s best squad.

Turkey: Birlik

It goes without saying that Turkey is one of VALORANT’s most competitive regions, with every match turning into an explosive battle for the Turkish crown. Every series so far has been a close cut affair, with multiple best of threes ending in intense back and forth matches. With three teams at the top of the table, anything can happen in this battle of wits, skill, and sheer firepower.