Vietnam's Saigon Warriors Will Face Four Korean Academy Teams at Riot's First Global Tier Two Event
Sixteen development teams from five regions will play best-of-one groups before a knockout stage that ends on 2 October.
Vietnamese champions Saigon Warriors are among 16 teams confirmed for the 2026 World Star Challengers Invitational, the first international League of Legends tournament for tier two teams, which starts on 20 September. Esports.gg published the full field on 16 September 2026.
The event is run by TJ Sports with Riot Games and expands the former Asia Star Challengers to teams from outside Asia. Four groups of four will play a double round-robin of best-of-one matches from 20 to 25 September, followed by a single-elimination knockout stage of best-of-five series from 27 September to 2 October.
Saigon Warriors qualified by winning the VCS Summer split, and the Asia-Pacific teams also include CTBC Flying Oyster Academy, winners of the PCS Summer split, and Japanese champions FENNEL. South Korea has four teams: Asia Masters winners Dplus Challengers, T1 Esports Academy, KT Rolster Challengers and SOOPers Challengers. China is represented by Bilibili Gaming Junior, EDG Youth Team and ZSK.
The EMEA teams are Galions, Solary and Movistar KOI Fenix, while North American Challengers champions Cupid eSports and Keyd Stars Academy will be joined by one Latin American qualifier. Veterans in the field include Elio of Saigon Warriors, Ellim of FENNEL and Ablazeolive of Cupid.
Riot said the event "is designed to open up a higher level of international competition for Tier 2 players and teams". The tournament is a pilot that will help shape future international tier two events, and no prize pool had been announced as of 16 September.