Which of the Regional VCT Groups is the hardest in Stage 1?

With the start of stage 1, each region has been split into Alpha and Omega groups by random draw; which of the VCT Groups are the hardest?

China VCT Groups

We’ll start with China as they, once again, start their Stage a little aead of the other regions. Kick Off showed theres a pretty clear hirearchy for the region, although generally the level of quality has gone up compared to the previous year.

The teams have been split up as follows.

As both EDward Gaming and Trace Esports qualified for Masters Bangkok, they were put as the 1st seed of each group, with the rest of the teams done by random draw.

At first glance, Group Omega look to bee the harder of the two groups. Trace Esports looked pretty rough coming out of Bangkok but were able to shape up twoards the end of their first games back home. Generally, the firepower of Bilibili and XLG will be what makes the group more competitive than Group Alpha. Wolves as well will be a team to watch, with any combination of those 4 expected to make it to playoffs. Over in Alpha, EDG is a pretty easy billing to be the top seed of their region, let alone their group. They do have a tendancy to get upset, and have already taken a surprise loss to Nova esports, which will shake up how lopsided that group will be. We can’t even blame it on trolling with Waylay, as they won the maps they brought her to and lost with KangKang at home on Jett. Despite hitting the speedbump again, it’s a pretty favorable bet to expect EDG to shape up and finish out make it to playoffs, even if they squandered their potential first seed to FPX.

Which of the Americas VCT Groups is the hardest?

Next up, Americas. Sentinels and G2 made it to the internationals and are the heads of Group Alpha and Omega respectively.

Personally I’m giving this one to Group Alpha before the season starts. As entertaining as the new look for MIBR was, and their attempts to prove the roster wasn’t Aspas and friends, the group as a whole has a lot of question marks. I wouldn’t be surprised if G2 didn’t drop a series on route to playoffs with how the other teams looked. Leviatan still feel unproven, and the likes of C9 and NRG have big question marks on them, especially NRG. We’ll see how Verno looks now that he’s joined Aspas on MIBR, and is replaced by brawk, coming in from Ludwig’s Moist x Shopify roster. I’m makign a distinction between hard vs scrappy for Americas. I wouldn’t be surprised if its a revolving door of win trades between the Group Omega rosters as the weeks go on, but I’m expecting that to be off the back of messy games rather than the teams drawing the best out of each other for each and every round.

KRU and 100 Thieves come into Stage 1 with a lot to prove for very different reasons. The former managed to make a deep run after getting knocked into the lower kick off bracket early, but are a team known to really struggle to get it together until they absolutely have to go on a run. Whereas 100 Thieves drew a pretty short straw in Kick Off, going out 0-2. Admittedly every team in the group is expected to farm their free win from 2GAME Esports, I think the fact that there should be a 4 way race for those 2nd and 3rd place seeds will make the gropu much harder overall.

APAC VCT Groups

The reigning Kickoff winners. They have a target on their backs now.

Who do you think in Group Alpha can stop @DRX_VALORANT? pic.twitter.com/LJPQgXrV04

— VCT Pacific (@vctpacific) March 21, 2025

VCT Pacific aren’t getting any special privileges for bringing home the trophy with T1. Just like the other regions, only 3 will qualify through the playoff bracket. This one might the clearest example of a group of death.

It’s not looking good for any fans of DFM, Global and BOOM. Absolutely horrific scenes in Group Alpha. DRX and Gen.G have both looked incredible, being the number 1 and 3 teams at Kick Off. And Paper Rex, even at the height of their trolling really only lose to the likes of DRX, Gen.G and T1, so those top 3 are most likely to make it out. The actual order is probably looking DRX, Gen.G, PRX but we’ll have to see how Paper Rex has used their time away after a disappointing Kick Off run. Waylay is certainly a Paper Rex coded agent, with how aggressive they like to take their fights, so I’m sure their matches will at least be interesting. Group Omega is going to be making the 2nd and 3rd seed a lot more up in the air. Nongshim, TALON and RRQ seem to take turns showing signs of briliance, Nongshim especially looked like they couuld really do some damage if not for their bracket luck. Obviously across all of VCT, G2 are the most impressive Ascension team, but outside of them, Nonghsim have been one of the standouts.

EMEA VCT Groups

Last but not least, EMEA.

For EMEA everyone in Group Alpha is fighting for second place. And what a fight it’ll be. Fnatic are another once superstar team that are now also branded with a big question mark themselves. Heretics as well after a disappointing fall off, still finishing 3rd but in pretty dire fashion compared to their form before the offseason. Unlike Pacific, where there’s a clear top 3, there’s not as much of a wide cap between the 3 favourites and the rest of the group. There’s signs of promise for all of the teams in Group Alpha. With most of the super heavy hitters in Group Alpha, Group Omega is a melting pot of the rest. Again, with how close the the skill gap is for EMEA, its likely that Group Omega is the harder of the 2. Karmine Crop definitely drew a short straw considering how well they played in Kick Off, and both BBL and FUT looked like they absolutely could have made their way to internationals if not for Liquid finding their form. With some extra time to grind while Team Liquid were getting that international experience, it’ll be fun to see how th eopening weeks shake out in Group Omega.