VCT Americas Stage 2 Survival Guide

_{^{Image credit: VCT Americas}}

Get ready for VCT Americas Stage 2 this weekend!

The VCT Americas Stage 2 is set to begin this weekend as the road to Champions for the region starts now. Much like the other franchise leagues, the VCT Americas region will have three teams representing them at Champions later this year. While there are plenty of teams that will be vying for just one of three spots available, it will be interesting to see who comes out on top at the end of the VCT Amercas Stage 2.

Sentinels were seen as the region's best hope after they won Masters Madrid earlier this year but faltered during Stage 1 and failed to qualify for Masters Shanghai. This paved the way for other teams like G2 Esports and 100 Thieves to make their mark on the international stage, which they did after both teams finished in the top four of the tournament.

VCT Americas - Format & Schedule

• Group Stage: June 22nd - July 14th
• Playoffs: July 18th - 22nd

Much like the rest of the franchised leagues, the VCT Americas Stage 2 will feature the same format that includes two single round-robin groups. Both Group Alpha and Omega will now play their matches against teams from the same group instead of the cross-group play that we saw in Stage 1. All games played will be a best-of-three series to determine the final six teams that will be moving on to the playoffs. This is decided through an overall leaderboard for the 11 teams, regardless of individual group standings.

The playoffs will feature a hybrid-elimination format that will see the top-two teams from the group stage receive an automatic bye to the upper bracket semifinals. As for the teams that ended up between third to sixth, they will have to face one another in the single-elimination knockout round. Only the winners from that series will move on to face the other two teams in the double-elimination bracket. All playoff matches are a best-of-three except for the lower bracket final and grand finals, which are a best-of-five.

Super Week is also back in VCT Americas, which will take place in the second week of the group stage. This will feature five straight days of two games each. There are also a few map pool changes to be expected when VCT Americas Stage 2 starts as Haven will make its return in place of Breeze. As for VALORANT's latest map Abyss, it will only come into the map pool rotation once the playoffs start, replacing Split in the process.

VCT Americas - Prize Pool

VCT Pacific remains to be the only region with a cash prize pool for Stage 2 whilst VCT Americas follows suit with the rest of the franchised leagues. As only three teams will get to go to VCT Champions, there's nothing to be gained for the rest of the teams as VCT Americas Points will not be rewarded as well. However, these points are now earned through each series victory during Stage 2 to determine which teams will be able to challenge for a top-three spot in the end.

VCT Americas - Teams

Both 100 Thieves and Sentinels are currently tied on 9 VCT Americas Points while the battle for the third and final spot for Champions is a three-way tie between G2 Esports, KRÜ Esports, and Leviatán. Unlike the other franchise regions with a fairly clear leader, it's still all up for grabs in the Americas as plenty of teams are still in the running.

With Super Week being closer in the second week of games, only nine of the 11 teams will be playing two games during those five days. That will be G2 and Cloud9 have just one series to play during that week with both teams needing a win on that day; G2 will be looking to move up in the standings to get closer towards a playoff spot while C9 will want to build on its impressive start during Stage 1.

• Cloud9
• Evil Geniuses
• FURIA Esports
• G2 Esports
• KRÜ Esports
• Leviatán
• LOUD
• MIBR
• NRG
• Sentinels
• 100 Thieves

VCT Americas - Where to Watch

There will be five games played stretched across three days during the first and third week with two games on Saturday and Sunday while Monday will have only one series. But the final week will feature six games in three days. All the games will be live-streamed from the official VCT Americas Twitch and YouTube channels.