With the start of 2022, Riot Games revealed the new regional leagues for the new season. According to the new format, eight regional leagues and EMEA Stage 1 Challengers will take place throughout the season.
VRL Northern Europe: Polaris is one of those leagues, featuring Nordic countries, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
Containing a total of eight teams, VRL Northern Europe: Polaris began on February 14 with a group stage, in which all teams showed up in a single group. The regular season matches will be played in a round-robin format, meaning the teams will compete against each other twice.
With the end of the group stage, the top four teams will qualify for the playoff where the double elimination bracket takes place. The playoffs will be played as best-of-threes and the winner will advance to the VCT Promotion event. VCT Promotion is an event that will feature all winners of the regional leagues across Europe and the last two teams of EMEA Stage 1 Challengers. The participants will fight in the event to grab a seat in EMEA Stage 2 Challengers 2.
Roster: Fearoth, luckeRRR, hype, Zik, SEIDER
The Sweden-based team is one of the favorites of VRL Northern Europe: Polaris. After failing to qualify for VCT 2022 EMEA Stage 1 Challengers due to consecutive losses in the closed qualifiers, Alliance managed to get through the Northern Europe league. The team that features well-known names of the Europe stage had a flawless start against TENSTAR in the league.
Roster: M4CHINA, bonkar, krea6on, Yacine, Nille
Tundra Esports is the new face of the scene who created its team right before the event started. Acquiring the orgless YONK roster, the team has a huge chance to make it out of the group stage.
Roster: shéd, JESMUND, Ale, vicious, Supmah
Kova was among the teams which got upset in the open qualifiers of VCT 2022 EMEA Stage 1 Challengers. Establishing its roster in October 2021, the Finland-based team qualified for VRL Northern Europe: Polaris after defeating GiefKalash and Vexed Gaming in the closed qualifier.
Roster: Moe40, chiwawa, ozzy, ellement, paTiTek
Following the unsuccessful season in 2021, Excel Esports entered the new season with a renewed roster. The UK-based team is a contender to take home the prize with its experienced and talented roster.
Roster: Br0die, KRAY, Polvi, xms, Doma
After making its name in the VALORANT Female scene, Tenstar is looking for a victory in VRL Northern Europe: Polaris. Adding ex-Fnatic player Doma to the roster, Tenstar is the underdog team of the league, even though it got its first loss against Alliance.
Roster: AKIMB0, Davud, Masked, Mishu, Jarlo
The roster that played under the banner of AXIBYTE Esports left the organization after the EMEA Stage 1 qualifiers and united as who cars?. The orgless team survived in the lower bracket of Polaris’ qualifier and got a spot in the league.
Two dark horses of the league that the EMEA fanbase is not familiar with are coming to surprise their opponents. Having similar journeys, both teams managed to qualify for VRL Northern Europe: Polaris after failing in the EMEA open qualifiers.
Human Tripwires roster: RobbieBk, John9, Dev0, Radski, Kicks
H2O Roster: jaf, Phardon, Sijk, Bati, F3n1x
With matches taking place on Monday to Thursday, we will update our standings at the end of each competitive week. After the initial two days of matches at Polaris, Excel is undefeated with a clean 2-0 record.
You can see the full standings below:
Credit: VRL Standings
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