
The VCT EMEA Kickoff, VALORANT’s first competition of the 2025 EMEA competitive season, saw a notable increase in viewership during its opening week.
Contrary to VCT Americas and VCT Pacific, two games achieved higher peak figures than last year’s opening Group Stage match-up between Team Vitality and Gentle Mates (292,161).
VCT 2025 EMEA Kickoff’s day two match between Apeks and Gentle Mates surpassed 334,000 viewers, according to esports data platform Esports Charts. The second most-watched series of the opening week peaked at 317,474 when French organisations Team Vitality and Karmine Corp faced off.
Norwegian esports organisation Apeks generated a lot of attention after the team announced the addition of Ava ‘florescent‘ Eugene, the first Game Changers eligible player to compete in a VCT International League, to the lineup. Her debut match, as well as a relatively close series against Gentle Mates, were driving factors to the increased numbers.
The average viewership during week one was 209,819, signaling an increasing interest in the competition as a whole. With more high-stakes matches going forward, VCT EMEA Kickoff’s previous viewership record, currently peaking at 419,206, could be contested if momentum continues.
It’s worth noting that Karmine Corp owner Kamel ‘Kamet0’ Kebir greatly contributed to viewership numbers, peaking at nearly 100,000 viewers during his co-streams. This further highlights that community casting is becoming an essential asset to improve engagement.
VCT EMEA is one of Riot Games’ four semi-franchised partner team leagues and houses several European organisations such as Fnatic, Team Liquid and KOI. Aside from the 10 partner teams, the league allows two organisations to earn their spot in the tier-one competition through the Ascension tournament, won by Gentlemates and Apeks in the last two years.
The top two teams from the VCT EMEA Kickoff event will qualify for the first international tournament of the 2025 season, VCT Masters Bangkok, which is set to take place in February.