Project BLENDER 2025 Reaches Top Four as Finals Weekend Arrives

The 2025 Project BLENDER VALORANT tournament has reached the end of its long, multi-phased journey, culminating this weekend in Stage 4’s knockout bracket that determines the event’s champion. Project BLENDER was built around four connected stages of competition designed to create a unified competitive space for EMEA’s entire ecosystem — from amateurs and semi-pro squads to VCT academy teams and challenger-level rosters.

Phase 1 opened the gates with the largest open qualifier in VALORANT history, featuring nearly 291 teams and thousands of rounds played. Phase 2 shifted to structured round-robin play with national and mixed professional sides. Phase 3 continued with a Swiss system that narrowed the field dramatically, and Phase 4 is the current single-elimination bracket where the remaining 16 teams are battling for the title.

Uniquely, Project BLENDER also ran Blender Spotlight, a dedicated cross-gender tournament where eight mixed-gender teams competed for direct entry into later phases of the main event. The grand finale weekend was initially scheduled to take place as a LAN in Paris, but persistent logistical challenges — particularly widespread visa issues among international competitors — forced the finals to remain online instead.

Top Eight Recap: Stories From Stage 4

The Stage 4 playoff bracket has delivered a compelling mix of storylines and competitive balance. After the Top 16 matches concluded, eight squads rose to the occasion and secured their spots in the quarterfinals: ULF Esports, Eternal Fire, Karmine Corp, Team Vitality, Team Liquid Academy, FUT Esports, GIANTX, and Natus Vincere. This group represented a strong cross-section of the EMEA competitive landscape, with notable regional representation. Turkish orgs like ULF, FUT, and Eternal Fire carried forward the country’s strong scene, while teams like Team Vitality and Team Liquid Academy embodied franchised or academy program strength. GIANTX and Natus Vincere also joined the VCT EMEA teams showing off their rebuilt rosters.

ULF Esports began their journey with a 2–0 win over Galatasaray Esports, demonstrating tactical discipline that briefly positioned them as one of the tournament’s favorites. Eternal Fire swiftly dispatched Russian squad OXUJI 2–0, also cementing themselves as a threat with clean execution and strong utility optimization. Eternal Fire ended up shutting down ULF 2-0 to lock themselves a top four spot.

Karmine Corp, one of the most recognizable names in European competition, opened with a 2–0 victory over 3BL Esports, but later fell to Team Vitality in a hard-fought 2–1 quarterfinal match after dropping the first map. Team Vitality carried on their momentum, relying on their roster’s skill to tip the series in their favor, while Team Liquid Academy delivered one of the most exciting matchups of the round, taking down FUT Esports 2–1 after a back-and-forth battle. GIANTX then impressed with a decisive 2–0 series against Natus Vincere, marking them as the one of two quarterfinalists to sweep their Top Eight match.

These results set up a Top Four that blends both veteran strategy and rising talent: Eternal Fire, Team Vitality, Team Liquid Academy and GIANTX.

Blender Spotlight: Cross-Gender Competition and Its Impact

Running parallel to the main Project BLENDER pathway was the Blender Spotlight tournament — a dedicated mixed-gender event created to promote inclusivity and open competition for teams incorporating gender minority players. Held from October 27th to 28th, the Spotlight event featured eight invited teams, including RAFHA eSPORTS, Falke Esports, NOVO Nightingale, S2G Esports, AlQadsiah Corals, ALTERNATE aTTaX, ZETA Gaming, and FMCL MIX. These teams competed initially in double-elimination group stages and then progressed into a single-elimination playoff bracket where all matches were best-of-three, also using the distinctive BLENDER Draft agent restriction system seen in the main event.

At the end of the week-long competition, it was ALTERNATE aTTaX who lifted the €10,000 top prize and secured overall victory and a spot during Stage 3 of Project Blender. Second and third place (FMCL MIX and NOVO Nightingale) earned their way into mid-stage qualification for the main tournament, reinforcing the event’s goal of elevating underrepresented players into the broader competitive ecosystem.

Blender Draft and Bounty Rules

Alongside its multi-phase progression and inclusive pathways, Project BLENDER introduced one of the most distinctive formats in competitive VALORANT: the BLENDER Draft. Rather than relying on traditional map bans and agent selections, the BLENDER Draft places escalating agent restrictions into play over the course of a series.

The team that selects the first map (Team A) cannot use any agent they picked on that map in the remainder of the series, forcing teams to expand beyond comfort picks and dive deeper into their agent pools. The opposing team (Team B) loses any agents they used on the first map only for the second map, and any agents played on the second map are then banned for the third. This creates a cascading set of limitations that values preparation, flexibility, and real-time adaptation — particularly critical as teams progress through Stage 4 and face unfamiliar opponents.

Complementing this draft system is Project BLENDER’s bounty feature, designed to financially reward lower-tier teams that achieve upsets against higher-ranked opponents, secure 2–0 sweeps, or win series despite significant agent restrictions. These bounties help distribute incentives throughout the bracket and encourage competitive risk-taking, giving smaller rosters tangible rewards for standout performances.

Finally, the Project Blender Challenger Call is a new competitive feature added exclusively to Project Blender. When a team wins an entire phase, it earns the privilege of choosing its first opponent in the next phase. This means that a team that qualified for Phase 2 via Phase 1 will be able to choose which team it wants to face in the first round of Phase 2, and so on.

Watch the competition get shredded in the Project Blender finals.

We’re hosting a watch party, in French, for all VALORANT fans in Paris this Saturday and Sunday.

Get your ticket and come witness the passion of the French cast live, carried by @RemakeVAL. pic.twitter.com/xWV0jnzq4t

— PROJECT BLENDER (@ProjectBlender_) December 12, 2025

Where to Watch

The event’s main broadcast is on the official VCT EMEA channel on Twitch and the Project Blender Channel on YouTube. There is also an official French broadcast here.

With the Top Four set, Project BLENDER’s finals weekend promises an action-packed showdown, and have two VCT teams, and two Challengers rosters ready to fight for the crown. The event’s culminating grand final on December 14, 2025 will crown a champion whose journey has traversed months of rounds, nearly 300 teams, and innovative ruleset experimentation.