A few familiar faces are set to return to Berlin as four proven Challengers representatives secured tickets to the EMEA Stage 2 Play-Ins. Beginning August 6, they will battle against partnered VCT teams in hopes of advancing all the way to Champions Shanghai.

A brief recap on their season results and qualification paths can be found below:

Enterprise Esports Enterprise Esports Europe Rank #1 MAGNUM Martin Penkov iluri Ilari Puranen Lime Jacob Foster paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kozzy Denis Stefan Aionitoaei

patitek image paTiTek at Champions Paris. (Photo: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)

Enterprise Esports has won nearly every event it has played in this season. The Czech organization signed a mix of VCT veterans alongside promising prospect kozzy at the beginning of the year in hopes of dominating its region.

Outside of a small hiccup in EMEA Challengers Stage 2, Enterprise took home gold six out of seven times across the events it played in throughout 2026. When the opportunity to battle against VCT-partnered teams presented itself at the EMEA Clash, Enterprise took out Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #7 dos9 Zhumagali Dastan LewN Burak Alkan Avez Hazem Khaled SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin N4RRATE Marshall Massey , GIANTX GIANTX Europe Rank #35 westside Miłosz Duda Flickless Karel Maeckelbergh ara Hanceriuc Eduard-George Jesse Adam Čtvrtníček neT Michael Bernet , and FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #6 s0pp Efe Tur xeus Doğan Gözgen yetujey Eray Budak KROSTALY Okan Alaçam sociablEE Volkan Yonal to claim one of the event's two crowns.

Despite losing Controller player Proxh to a call-up from Gentle Mates Gentle Mates Europe Rank #11 Proxh Yusuf Emre Tunc starxo Patryk Kopczynski marteen Martin Pátek H1ber Joona Parviainen Minny Patrik Hušek ahead of EMEA Stage 2, paTiTek 's arrival proved to be what Enterprise needed as it won six straight matches in EMEA Challengers Stage 3 to qualify to Play-Ins.

Of the seven players and staff on Enterprise, a total of four have Tier 1 experience. As the team was recently matched up against FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #17 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Cloud Kirill Nehozhin Alfajer Emir Ali Beder in Play-Ins, MAGNUM will now have the opportunity to face off against his old captain Boaster .

REBORN REBORN Inactive hezacoil Berkay Doğar Kachoww Samet Arıcı DeadInk Utku Onur Aydin batujnax Mehmet Batu Özaslan reazy Kaan Ürpek ( Fire Flux Esports Fire Flux Esports Europe Rank #4 batujnax Mehmet Batu Özaslan hezacoil Berkay Doğar Kachoww Samet Arıcı DeadInk Utku Onur Aydin reazy Kaan Ürpek )

batujnax image batujnax at 2025's EMEA Stage 1. (Photo: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games)

The former core of S2G Esports S2G Esports Inactive batujnax Mehmet Batu Özaslan DeadInk Utku Onur Aydin hezacoil Berkay Doğar Kachoww Samet Arıcı reazy Kaan Ürpek chose to stay together following the organization's exit from the competitive scene in March. Under their old organization, the players of REBORN achieved a second-place finish in Challengers Türkiye Kickoff as well as top eight at EMEA Challengers Stage 1.

Heading into the rest of the season without an organization, REBORN achieved regional dominance by winning Challengers Türkiye Stage 2 and rode the momentum to win EMEA Challengers Stage 2 with a 3-1 victory over Kolosha and the rest of Natus Vincere Junior Natus Vincere Junior Europe Rank #10 Javelin Vitalii Fedak Kolosha Herman Skrypka Darxcioo Waniss Mehl avey Nikita Ivanovs sizo Wiktor Bujak .

After winning the only EMEA Challengers trophy of the year that Enterprise failed to claim, REBORN ended its Tier 2 season with a second-place finish in Stage 3 and secured one of three tickets to Play-Ins.

The fully-Turkish squad is headlined by batujnax , who is the only other player outside of reazy to have played in Tier 1. Should REBORN win its first two games of Play-Ins, it may have the chance to reunite with former Head Coach Mavera , who currently dons a Gentle Mates jersey.

Although not officially announced, REBORN is seemingly set to represent Fire Flux Esports Fire Flux Esports Europe Rank #4 batujnax Mehmet Batu Özaslan hezacoil Berkay Doğar Kachoww Samet Arıcı DeadInk Utku Onur Aydin reazy Kaan Ürpek in Berlin following the use of the latter's logo and branding for the Play-Ins bracket on EMEA broadcasts.

Joblife Joblife Europe Rank #8 kamyk Maks Rychlewski doma Domagoj Fancev chiwa Egor Stepanyuk runneR Emil Trajkovski Pa1ze Mohammad Khatib UNFAKE Bartosz Bernacki

doma image doma subbing in for FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #17 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Cloud Kirill Nehozhin Alfajer Emir Ali Beder at Champions Paris. (Image: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games)

After two years of top six finishes at EMEA Ascension tournaments, Joblife has finally broken into Tier 1. The French organization onboarded a full team of former Tier 1 players at the start of the year and dominated Stage 1 of France's Challengers circuit.

Outside of regional competition, however, Joblife left much to be desired. The team finished among the top eight at the EMEA Clash and picked up a single win in Challengers Stage 1 groups.

Upon its return to regional competition, Joblife struggled in groups and sat at a 1-3 record before swapping out in-game leader Enzo for former Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #2 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen PROFEK Dawid Święć Derke Nikita Niko Sirmitev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu Recon player UNFAKE . The change proved to be successful, and the squad only suffered one loss to Mandatory Mandatory Europe Rank #18 nataNk Nathan Bocqueho Kada Thomas Johner sh1n Ryad Ensaad Sevire Ethan Starke TakaS Jonathan Paupard before going on to win the entirety of France Revolution Stage 2.

A notable fourth-place finish awaited Joblife in Challengers Stage 2, and the points it had accrued over the year procured a bid to Stage 3. After narrowly escaping the group stage, Joblife almost immediately found itself in the lower bracket of playoffs following a bout with REBORN gone wrong.

With the looming threat of another season's end as motivation, Joblife eliminated MIR MIR Europe Rank #28 Redgar Igor Vlasov reblyik Danylo Reblian kospa1n Karim Suleimanov Bishepss Roman Manakhov Raz Arseniy Kuleshov , NAVI Junior, and FOKUS FOKUS Europe Rank #14 – all in 2-1 fashion – to guarantee an appearance at Play-Ins. Recently, the organization announced the signing of Pa1ze in place of chiwa , who has once again been barred from play due to visa issues.

Out of all the EMEA Challengers Play-Ins representatives, Joblife houses talent that formerly represented the likes of FNATIC, Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #13 purp0 Semyon Borchev nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin kamo Kamil Frąckowiak trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Kicks Kimmie Laasner , Team Vitality, Gentle Mates, BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #3 Crewen Ali Eren Sargin Lar0k Yusuf Kaan Kanber Loita Utku Kart Rosé Eren Erzan lovers rock Umut Pekdoğan , GIANTX, and Apeks Apeks Inactive . Two immediate wins at Play-Ins could see runneR pit against his former teammates at GIANTX.

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt Europe Rank #5 musashi Alessio Xhaferi azury Luca Sammer Jamelinho213 Ryad Bentot Fizzy David Figueiredo MONSTEERR Ondřej Petrů

monsteerr image MONSTEERR at 2025's EMEA Stage 2. (Photo: Michal Konkol/Riot Games)

Unlike the other three Challengers teams at Play-Ins, Eintracht Frankfurt didn't qualify through Stage 3. The German organization won 12 straight matches across three forms of play in the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier to snatch the final ticket to Berlin.

Prior to its run in the LCQ, SGE cemented itself in the upper echelons of DACH Challengers by never finishing below the top four. Despite this, SGE only ever finished among the top 12 at Stage 1 of EMEA Challengers.

With only enough points to qualify to LCQ Play-Ins, SGE tore through competition without a loss and advanced to the Group Stage. From there, the team defeated UCAM Esports Club UCAM Esports Club Europe Rank #19 Buld Michał Sokal B1SK Vitaliy Emelyanov Famsii Ramses Valentino Erasmus Koivukangas OLIZERA Diogo Oliveira and Mandatory to continue onward to the unforgiving single-elimination Playoffs, where it defeated FOKUS, Mandatory, and Çilekler Çilekler Europe Rank #20 mepeezy Enes Öztürk wtex Muhammet Emin Kılıç ibonata İbrahim Taha Güler kabzi Mert Oal Slaughter İrfancan Çakıl – another team who advanced from the LCQ Play-Ins – to qualify to Berlin.

Outside of MONSTEERR 's brief stint with KOI KOI Inactive last year, the remainder of SGE features players who have yet to touch the Tier 1 stage.

Up Next

The EMEA Stage 2 Play-Ins begin August 6. The first round of play will guarantee Challengers teams battling against the lowest-seeded VCT teams of the Group Stage as seen below: