VCT Stage 2 is about to launch for the NA and EMEA regions! Let’s see what the game is about this time.

Just after OpTic dominated the VCT Stage 1 Masters tournament, another Stage is just around the corner, which is the last chance for many teams to prove themselves. Although the tournament will be held in the same format as VCT Stage 1, the atmosphere is very different and some teams are taking it very seriously, such as Sentinels, who decided to change their squad at the last minute.

But for now, let’s see who we can see in the last VCT Challengers tournaments this year and how much the prize money will be.

VCT Stage 2 Challengers: North America

Teams

As of yet, we don’t have a complete list of all the teams that will be competing in the VCT Stage 2 Challengers for the NA region, as the Open Qualifiers are still underway and will conclude on May 8. Here’s what the list currently looks like:

Yes, the Sentinels, 100 Thieves and Version1 teams are still missing, which looks very strange, but that’s the world we live in.

Prize pool

As in Phase 1, the prize pool for the NA Challengers tournament is $200,000 and two slots for the next Masters event. It will be divided as follows

Schedule & Streams

We don’t know the exact schedule for this tournament yet, we just know that the matches are scheduled to start on May 13 and last until June 26. However, you can be sure that all the games will be streamed on the official Valorant Twitch channel.

VCT Stage 2 Challengers: EMEA

In contrast to the NA region, we already know all the participants of the EMEA Stage 2 Challengers. Apart from the schedule, we actually already know almost everything about the tournament.

Teams

There are no surprises in the EMEA region. All of these teams should be very familiar to any Valorant Esports enthusiast. However, we have a new and interesting team – FOKUS, an international mix of players from Germany, Norway, Finland, Denmark and the UK.

It’s also worth noting that Acend, Fnatic and LDN UTD will have new squads for this tournament.

Prize pool

Again, there are no changes to the prize pool. It is exactly the same as in VCT Phase 1 – €200,000 and 3 VCT Masters places. This is how the distribution will look like:

Stream

You can watch all VCT Stage 2 Challengers EMEA matches on the official Valorant Twitch Channel.

Valorant: How to put together the optimal team

Which roles do you need to fill? How do you divide up the positions? And who is the in-game leader? We have the answers!

Many roles for five positions in the team

You can roughly divide the roles and responsibilities in a team. There is the solo defender, who can hold a point alone. The Support, who makes room with skills that need to be respected. The In-Game Lead makes the calls and works with the information of his teammates. The Entry Fragger and the Secondary are the players who go together on a point and are not afraid of enemy contact. The Sniper, who preferably holds certain angles with an Operator and can get a big advantage for the round with a First Blood, can also be beneficial to the team. Last but not least, there is the Lurker, who preferably keeps opponents busy at the other end of the map and comes from an unexpected side after enemy rotations.

The individual roles can also partially overlap or can be left out entirely or can change from round to round. An in-game leader can also be a solo defender and can also focus on minimap and communication due to defensive play. A balanced team with the assignment of such roles has the advantage that the team members know what their tasks are in the current round and can thus also build on the strengths of their agents.

The Spearhead: Entry Fragger & Secondary

The Entry Fragger is optimally the first player to make contact with the opponents around the Objective being targeted by the team. This can also be an important place on a map as a defender, e.g. to gain some control over the center in Ascent. By his push he makes room for the other mates, passes on the positions of the opponents and has the chance to get the point alone by nimble kills. The best agents for this role are Phoenix and Reyna.

As a secondary, you try to build on the moves, information and kills from the entry fragger. At a certain point, it pays to take a different position, hold different angles, or get behind enemy lines very quickly to take opponents who are rotating out of the action. Jett, Raze, Omen and Breach are particularly suitable for this role.

The Solo Defender

Since most maps have 3 main lanes, only two of them can be defended with a duo, the third “lane” then belongs to the solo defender. On Attack the role is obsolete, but an agent made for this role can here protect the team from flanks or focus on making sure the spike is well placed and defend them additionally with appropriate skills. Those who like this style of play might be satisfied with Cypher, Sage and Sova.

The Support

The main task of the support player is the optimal use of his abilities to make it easier for his own team to attack a point. This includes for example optimal placement of Smokes and the use of Flashes. As supports, many agents are suitable for this role: The solo defender agents can support well in the offense to get information or to cover some angles. Other agents are suitable as supports thanks to their sight-blocking abilities, like Brimstone and Viper, which can make it very easy to access a point. But Sova or Skye are also welcome in the role, as they can scout ahead with their Recon abilities.

The In-Game Leader

No team can function without an IGL. The game starts with the operator choice: Who plays which agent? How should the team split up on the map by default? Which agents do the opponents have? What do we have to pay attention to? How do we time the round? All this information and more have to be communicated to the team. If you want to take the role of the IGL, you should look for an agent who supports this role additionally like all agents who can get additional information by ability like Cypher, Sova and Raze.

The Sniper

Do you have an operator god in your team? Then let him take the role of the Sniper. Defensively, the Sniper can hold many angles where he can stand faster than the enemy team and get free kills especially against slow peeks. If it goes a bit offensive, he tries to move out after the spearhead, gradually covering positions where opponents can come. Good agents to support the sniper’s playstyle are for example Jett to play more offensive angles without risk or Cypher who rotates to other points after building up camera and tripwires to stay unpredictable.

The Lurker

Last but not least, there are the Lone Wolfs, who don’t like to hang out with the team, also called Lurker. This role is also useful in a team to avoid giving half the map to the opponents or to get impatient opponents when they don’t expect it because they rotate through their own spawn. Omen, Reyna and Jett are especially useful for playing off the enemy team, as their abilities make them less likely to fall victim to refrags or to escape from a bad position after a successful kill.

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