The Esports World Cup Foundation has announced the allocation of the 16 highly sought-after spots for EWC Valorant 2026.
EWC Valorant 2026 will return with 16 teams competing in Riyadh from July 2-12, with an increased $2 million prize pool and the same format of group stages followed by playoffs. Team Heretics, who won the first-ever 2025 event, are the sole team to qualify as title defenders automatically.
Aside from Team Heretics, the direct qualification is closely tied to the VCT schedule. The Stage 1 winners of the four major regions – Americas, EMEA, Pacific, and China – will automatically qualify for the Esports World Cup 2026. This ensures that five of the sixteen teams are already qualified before a single regional qualifier match is played.
The remaining eleven spots will be determined by online regional qualifiers, largely as expected in terms of the breakdown of the slot allocation. Americas, EMEA, and Pacific will each get three qualifier spots, while China gets two, adding to its total of three with its Stage 1 champion. The missing third Chinese qualifier spot essentially loops back to EMEA as the Stage 1 home of reigning champions Team Heretics, projecting a five-team presence for EMEA.
The final breakdown looks like this. A 4-5-4-3 split among Americas, EMEA, Pacific, and China, respectively, pending no region swaps or disqualifications. In the Americas and Pacific regions, the three-spot qualifiers essentially make Stage 1 just the beginning, with heavily bracketed open brackets likely to feature big orgs who have no shot at a title run. In China, the smaller number of qualifier spots increases the importance of both Stage 1 and the limited remaining spots, intensifying the pressure on new rosters looking to prove themselves on the global stage.