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Riot comments on VCT EMEA scheduling struggles

Lee Jones

| May 15, 2025

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The later finish for VCT EMEA’s playoffs, which leaves EMEA’s Masters Toronto attendees with considerably less preparation time in comparison to other regions, has been called a “huge mistake” by pros. Jon Tilbury, VCT EMEA Product Lead, has insisted that this is a “one-off” caused by the decision to host playoff matches on weekends in order to “elevate the experience and make sure more fans can tune in”.

Riot comments on VCT EMEA scheduling struggles

EMEA’s delay

The VCT EMEA Stage 1 final on the 18th May final is considerably later than those of other leagues. Pacific ended a week earlier on the 11th, while Americas and China finished a week earlier than that on the 4th. This gives qualifying teams from those regions 4-5 weeks of preparation ahead of Masters Toronto starting on June 7th, while those that qualified from EMEA will have just 3 weeks. With Esports World Cup qualifiers also taking place in the interim, EMEA can be seen as having a disadvantage compared to other regions, particularly with Masters Toronto being on a new patch, which sides will need to adapt to.

What is unique for 2025 Stage 1 is that only a single region is being impacted dramatically. The one-week delay behind Pacific and two-week delay behind Americas and China is unprecedented, with no single league having previously finished a stage more than one day later than the next-latest.

This scheduling has unsurprisingly received criticism. In an exclusive interview with Hotspawn, Fnatic’s Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov called said it was a “huge mistake” on Riot’s part for having such stark differences in dates, going as far a joking about “special conspiracy theories” of Riot’s bias towards the Americas league.

Riot responds

After Hotspawn reached out to Riot for comment on the scheduling differences and subsequent discontent from those within EMEA, Jon Tilbury, VCT EMEA Product Lead, provided a statement in which he accepted that, while the schedule “isn’t something we’re happy about” and that they “want to avoid” such issues in the, the decisions were made to have playoff matches on weekends to “elevate the experience and make sure more fans can tune in”.

Tilbury’s statement in full:

“We know that VCT EMEA Stage 1 finishing later than other regions affects how teams are able to prepare for Masters Toronto. This isn’t something we’re happy about and, as best as possible, we want to avoid this in the future.

Scheduling is a complicated process that involves considering a number of different constraints. Ultimately, we have to try and pick the approach that delivers the best possible outcome when all factors are considered. This sometimes means we have to make trade-offs, some of which aren’t ideal, but when we zoom out, we believe the bigger picture serves both players and fans best.

After hearing feedback last year, we decided to host all 2025 Playoff matches on weekends to elevate the experience and make sure more fans can tune in. That decision meant Stage 1 had to finish later than we’d have liked.

The good news is that this is a one-off, and we’ve [been] able to strike a better balance during Stage 2, meaning we’ll have weekend Playoffs, without compromising the lead-in to Champions Paris.”

The decision to have playoffs on weekends meant that earlier dates would’ve coincided with LEC Spring regular season matches, typically held from Saturday to Monday each week in the same Berlin studio as VCT EMEA.

EMEA Stage 1 an anomaly

The exact two-week difference between Americas and China, the first to finish Stage 1, and EMEA is considerable. It allows far greater time to get accustomed to the upcoming changes in 10.09 that will be in effect at Masters Toronto, including the Tejo and Breach nerfs as well as the introduction of Sunset.

That said, two weeks is not quite the biggest gap in regional finishes seen since the current regional structure was introduced in 2023. Earlier this year, in fact, China’s Kickoff tournament finished far before any others — 14 days ahead of Americas and 15 days ahead of EMEA and Pacific. This would have been a result of Chinese New Year which took place between January 29th and February 12th.

VCT Regional Tournament Final Dates, 2023-present

Event	Americas	EMEA	Pacific	China	Difference between earliest to latest (days)	Difference between second-latest to latest (days)
2023 League	28th May	28th May	28th May	–	0	0
2023 LCQ	23rd July	23rd July	23rd July	16th July	7	0
2024 Kickoff	3rd March	1st March	25th February	2nd March	7	1
2024 Stage 1	12th May	12th May	12th May	12th May	0	0
2024 Stage 2	21st July	20th July	21st July	20th July	1	0
2025 Kickoff	8th February	9th February	9th February	25th January	15	0
2025 Stage 1	4th May	18th May	11th May	4th May	14	7

2024 Kickoff was the only other occasion where one region finished outright later than all others, with Americas coming to an end just a day later than China.

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Lee Jones

VALORANT Content Lead

By day, Lee is a self-taught esports journalist who has written for a number of publications covering some of esports’ biggest events. By night, Lee is a world record holder as the fastest player ever to be fired on Football Manager.

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