With Champions Shanghai and the previous VCT partnership agreement coming to an end, EMEA organizations that applied for the next cycle have begun announcing their status publicly.
The previous format had 10 partnered teams per region plus two Ascension teams. The new cycle has eight partnered teams per region, and regions are split further. VCT EMEA will be divided into Europe, Türkiye and MENA.
The confirmed partners for 2027 are Team Heretics, BBL Esports, Team Vitality, Team Liquid, Gentle Mates, Karmine Corp, FUT Esports and FNATIC. Team Vitality and Team Liquid extend their stay in VCT after appearing at Champions Shanghai. FUT Esports played at Masters Toronto and qualified for Champions, while FNATIC, according to the source, had a rocky 2026 and hopes to return to winning ways internationally.
GIANTX, Barça eSports and Eintracht Frankfurt announced that they were not selected as partners, and the same applies to Natus Vincere. Eintracht Frankfurt will try to return through the open qualifiers after a season that included the Stage 2 EMEA Play-Ins and playoffs.
The source says the list will be updated as more announcements are made.