The Summer Playoffs of EMEA Masters will start this Thursday. As the very best League of Legends national leagues teams in EMEA will be facing each others in BO5, Sheep Esports reporters have ranked together the teams we expect to be the strongest regardless of the bracket.

1. Geekay Esports (MENA)

Geekay Esports has been the most surprising team this year. They already amazed everyone in Spring as they reached semis by reverse sweeping Karmine Corp Blue, EMEA Mastsers' Kings, and made history as an Arabian team had never been this far in the tournament. It seems they now come in as a favorite.

They outrageously dominated in their region and 3-0 both of their matches against Nigma Galaxy in the playoffs to win the Summer Split. Ahmad "Giyuu" Charif earned the MVP of the final, and seems to have a maximum confidence coming in the tournament. They now are one of the two only teams which are undefeated in the tournament, where they (again) beat KCB in a 26min game. We can expect them to reach semi finals again for a potential rematch in a BO5.

- Clément Chocat

2. Team BDS Academy (LFL)

Team BDS Academy broke their curse and managed to earn their first ever title in LFL by defeating Karmine Corp Blue 3-1 in last split's final. This win occurred after them having a huge domination and what seems to be the best split in the history of the organization breaking many records of win, kills and assists. They only lost five Nexus (one against Aegis, others against KCB) and proved their veteran roster to be one of the most robust in all ERLs.

Rudy "SkewMond" Semaan is having the best year of his career as he got MVP of the split in Summer, while his support Polat "Parus" Furkan Çiçek is continuously proving himself as a player to look at very closely in this tournament. Although they lost once against Dark Passage in a BO1, they also defeated Los Heretics, LVP Superliga's first seed, quite easily to access the playoffs.

- Clément Chocat

3. Karmine Corp Blue (LFL)

The org that built its prestige on League of Legends, because of its success in the EMEA Masters stage, comes back this year with the clear ambition of restoring its former glory. What is as frightening as reassuring for the team that will face them, they seem to be a squad that is all about momentum, especially since the arrival of Dogukan "113" Balcı and Félix "Abbedagge" Braun. This same momentum paved them the way through an eight win streak in regular season and to a 3-0 against their biggest rival, BDSA, in the Upper Bracket playoffs.

But it is also that lack of momentum, coupled with extra-sportive issues concerning the German midlaner, that led to their collapse in Final of the LFL. Then, a couple days later, to lose again to Geekay Esports in the Swiss Stage of EMEA Masters and not achieving revenge for their elimination in Spring. But it seems that since then, KCB has woken up. Two wins in 25 min or so, against Turkey and Germany and then, a clean 2-0 against TCL seed two to qualify for playoffs. If they keep this form, no doubt they will be clear contenders for the title. So it's more likely to be their performance against S04 this Thursday that will determine which version of KCB has shown up in playoffs.

As for sure, the prodigy Caliste "Caliste" Henri-hennebert will do his best to leave one last mark on the ERL before joining LEC in 2025. With the Prestigious, also willing to accomplish the Manita after already filled its trophy cabinet with four EMEA titles.

- Ethan Cohen

4. Los Heretics (LVP Superliga)

The Superliga champions have had a slow but steady start to EMEA Masters. The Spanish team has needed a few more rounds than expected as they lost to Vitality Bee in the second round of the Swiss Stage as well as losing 2-0 to Team BDS Academy in a convincing manner before qualifying in round 6 against Ramboot by a 2-0 score.

Heretics despite having had some stumbles to get out of the Swiss Stage is still one of the favourite teams to lift the trophy and will face Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition in the round of 16 to prove it, the team of Guilhoto has a perfect mix between veteran (Xerxe, Jackspektra, Sertuss) and their young promise (Carlsen) capable of snowballing games from the first minute they step on the crack becoming one of the teams to be reckoned with.

- Eros

5. Vitality.Bee (LFL)

The Vitality team has been one of the most solid teams during the Swiss Stage, the French team has been able to close all their games with forcefulness led by an excellent Kacper "Daglas" Dagiel and a set of players with a very clear game plan from minute one, to finish the game as soon as possible.

Starting the Swiss Stage with a 3-0 win over teams like Los Heretics to close the most solid start of any team in the LFL as both KCB and Team BDS Academy suffered a loss in the first three games. Despite the slip up in the BO3 against Geekay, the fourth seed of the LFL are favourites to reach the final of the tournament having been favoured by the draw to play a round of 16 against a Barça eSports team that qualified on the last day

- Eros

6. DSYRE (LIT)

Without any doubts, Dsyre represents the biggest upset of this EMEA Masters Swiss Stage. Being Italy seed one did not assure a place in playoffs at all. But, eventhough DSY was its seed two, they still managed, along with Geekay, to be the first team to qualify with a clean 4-0 run in this first stage of the competition. The team of the young and talented toplaner Panagiotis "Empyros" Tantis did not even had the excuse of the easy draw, since they had to face two LFL (Team GO and BK ROG) and two TCL (Boostgate and Dark Passage) teams throughout the Swiss Stage.

Still, it remains to be seen if Dsyre is able to display the same power in BO5, especially against teams that might have more experience at the highest ERL level. And yet, they could still go far since they had a good draw for playoffs. Dsyre fell on the good side of the coin and joined the easiest side of the bracket. They will first have to overcome the team that defeated them in LIT Grand Final, this summer: Macko Esports. Anything can happen after that fratricidal duel for the resourceful DSY, which assembled veterans that have nothing left to lose, and new blood that want to have a shot in a major ERL for next year.

- Ethan Cohen

7. Dark Passage (TCL)

The team completely rebuilt after their disappointing 4th place in the Winter in the Turkish league. They brought some pretty interesting talents such as toplaner Kim "Zest" Dong-min from GenG Academy and Jonathan "Backlund" Bäcklund from disbanded LDLC OL team in LFL. They managed to pull an impressive marathon run in the TCL Summer playoffs playing a total of 19 games in only four confrontations.

So far in the tournament, they have surprisingly defeated BDSA in the Swiss Stage in a very long 43 minutes game, proving themselves to be a very tough team to bring down. They will face Team GO in the first round of Playoffs as a new challenge to overcome.

- Clément Chocat

8. SK Gaming Prime (Prime League)

SK Gaming has one of the most exciting roster in ERL on paper. Yet, they haven't really succeeded at dominating all debates so far this year. Failing in quarters in Spring at the EMEA Masters, they also only ended at 3rd place in Prime League's Playoffs this Summer as they fell short against FC Schalke 04 Esports and UoL Sexy Edition respectively 3-1 and 3-0.

Coming in the tournament, they struggled against both LFL teams (VIT.B and KCB). But we can still expect a resurgence of pride as the team lead by midlaner Dimitri "Diplex" Ponomarev and former LEC AD Carry Matúš "Neon" Jakubčík is rumored to do well in scrims. They will have to prove themselves very early on as their next opponents are BDSA, one of the strongest team in the tournament.

- Clément Chocat

9. Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition (Prime League)

After a mixed year, UOL Sexy Edition returned to the EMEA Masters as 9th in our Power Rankings. Indeed, the Germans first finished 5th in the German League Spring Split, missing out on the EMEA Masters, before finishing in the same position in the Summer Regular Season. However, it was during the Prime League playoffs that the magic happened for the Unicorns. Four Best-Of-Fives, four wins, making them Prime League Summer Split Champions and number 1 seed for the EMEA Masters.

Although UOL's Swiss Stage run may have been easier than some other teams, they still achieved some surprising results, such as a BO3 loss to Entropiq (1-2) before crushing Papara SuperMassive 2-0 in the same exercise. The team finished the Swiss Stage with a 4-2 record, booking a ticket to the playoffs.

To continue their rainbow road, the Unicorns will have to overcome Spanish champions Los Heretics, a match that promises to be complicated given the recent form of Xerxe and his team-mates. However, UOL will have a number of arguments in their favor, with Shelfmade and xMatty being in great form since the start of the competition.

- REMA

10. Team GO (LFL)

After missing the Spring Split edition, Team GO return to the EMEA Masters in 10th position in our Power Rankings. As a reminder, GO made a change to their roster by recruiting Oliver "Dajor" Ryppa on the midlane to replace Sixten "Six10" Hull. While the French team finished in the same position as during the Spring Split in the Summer regular season (5th), GO did improve in the playoffs, finishing just one place off the podium after a loss to VITB.

This fourth-place finish meant that the team had to go through to the LCQ of the EMEA Masters, where they easily advanced to their qualifying match against Eintracht Spandau. GO had to dig deep but finally managed to topple the reigning EMEA Masters champion to book a place in the Main Event. Two defeats to BDSA and DSY overshadowed GO's fine showing at the EMEA Masters Swiss Stage, where they qualified for the Playoffs by beating NNO Prime 2-1.

For the Playoffs, the LFL's top actors will have to face Dark Passage in the Round of 16. It's a match that seems very much up for grabs against the TCL runners-up, who finished the Swiss Stage with the same number of wins and losses. To go for an Oscar... a success, GO will be able to count on an in-form Mehdi "Boukada" Lahlou and a motivated Jean "Jezu" Massol, as he has shown on X.

- REMA