Riot Games and Gozulting have officially announced the return of the Project Blender 2026 VALORANT competition, covering the EMEA region and offering a €100,000 prize pool. This tournament is open to teams of all levels and will feature two LAN stages in Paris, intended to compensate for the cancellation of the 2025 offline final due to visa and logistical issues.
The tournament's structure and schedule consist of three stages, starting with an open qualifier on October 3–4, 2026, where up to 256 teams will compete in a BO1 single-elimination bracket for two spots to advance. The next step will be the group stage at Paris Games Week (October 21–24), where these two teams and six invited squads will compete in two groups using a BO3 round-robin format. The top two teams from each group will advance to the playoffs to determine the two participants for the December final. The decisive stage will take place December 18–20 at the Palais Brongniart: there, the two winners of the previous stage will meet six newly invited teams in an eight-team bracket.
Project Blender will once again utilize its unique draft system called the Blender Draft System, which significantly limits agent selection and makes the tournament special. In BO3 and BO5 series, agents chosen by a team on one map become unavailable to them on the subsequent maps of the match, forcing participants to strategically plan their compositions for the entire series in advance. The right to the first pick or ban is determined by a traditional coin toss before the start.
Despite the ambitious plans, organizers are facing challenges and scheduling conflicts, as the tournament's timeline partially overlaps with VALORANT Champions Shanghai, taking place from September 24 to October 18. Because of this, the participation of European clubs such as Karmine Corp, Team Liquid, FUT Esports, and Team Vitality remains in question. Additionally, anticipated major changes to the VCT format for 2027 make this offseason particularly complex and unpredictable for players, rosters, and esports organizations.
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