Two regional Opens deep into Split 2 and the picture in both top tiers is cloudier — in the best possible way — than it has been at any point this season. NA has produced two different champions across two Opens. EU has produced two different champions. The post-Boston roster moves have mostly translated into immediate results.
Here's where everything stands.
NA Open 4 — Spacestation 4-2 NRG (March 20-22)
Spacestation's Zach signing announced itself in 48 hours. The new three-man rotation alongside diaz and reveal walked into the Open 4 final and took NRG 4-2, with Zach posting a series-best 8.01 rating, 7 goals, 7 assists, and 11 saves. diaz added 8 goals across the series. Spacestation as a team finished with 17 goals and a 7.69 team rating — emphatic numbers in a final this stage of a season.
For NRG, the loss isn't a panic moment, but it's a real one. Defending Worlds champions don't usually drop their first Split 2 final at home.
EU Open 4 — Vitality 4-0 Ninjas in Pyjamas (March 27-29)
Vitality reminded the entire region that the Boston Major final wasn't an accident. The new Vitality core, anchored by zen, swept Ninjas in Pyjamas 4-0 in the Open 4 EU final. NIP were the higher-floor team coming in based on Boston points. They left with one of the cleanest series losses any top-four EU roster has taken this year.
Vitality have now reached the late stages of both 2026 EU events. The "are they actually the best team in EU?" conversation officially began on March 29.
NA Open 5 — Shopify Rebellion 4-0 FUT Esports (April 3-5)
North America's hottest roster of the year added their second statement piece in April. Shopify Rebellion's Lj, kofyr, and Firstkiller went through the Open 5 NA bracket and finished it with a 4-0 sweep over FUT Esports in the Grand Final. FUT — running their post-trade-window roster of jstn., Chronic, and Cheese — were never able to take a game off Shopify, who closed the series with the kind of decisive late-game finishing that the eye test has been telegraphing since Copenhagen.
Shopify Rebellion now sit one point behind NRG in the official NA Worlds standings (89 to 90). It is the closest race in any region.
EU Open 5 — Gentle Mates 4-2 Karmine Corp (April 10-12)
The Boston Major champions weren't done. Gentle Mates ran through the EU bracket and beat Karmine Corp 4-2 in the Grand Final — KC's first split-event Grand Final loss in over a year.
For Karmine Corp, the result is a wake-up call. A second consecutive Split 2 without a regional Open win has historic precedent for this roster, and it's never preceded a strong Major. Vatira is still putting up KC-tier numbers in every series, but the team-level macro consistency that defined their 2025 second half has not fully returned.
For Gentle Mates, this is the second consecutive event where they have looked like the smartest top-tier team in EU. Boston Major, plus an Open 5 over the previous EU #1. Their consistency story is real.
What it all means
EU is genuinely four-deep
Boston (Gentle Mates), Open 4 (Vitality), Open 5 (Gentle Mates) — and Karmine Corp is still the #1 RLCS points seed. Throw in Ninjas in Pyjamas and Manchester City Esports as Open semi-final regulars and EU has at least five teams with realistic claims to a Paris top-six finish.
NA has three contenders, not one
NRG won Boston seeding. Spacestation won Open 4 with a roster two weeks old. Shopify Rebellion won Open 5 cleanly. Each of those teams is plausibly the best team in the region depending on how you weight recent form. The "best team in NA" piece has never been less defensible to write.
The new eligibility rule is doing its job
We flagged in the trade window summary that the new regional-majority rule was going to shape roster building. The early evidence is that it's also shaping winners: FUT, Vitality, and Spacestation are all running roster compositions that comply with the rule cleanly, and all three were in Open finals this month.
Open 6 next, then Paris
The final regional Opens of Split 2 (Open 6) run April 17-26 across regions. Paris is May 20-24. With four different winners in four Opens and the EU/NA top-tier still mathematically unsorted, the Major bracket is going to be the most contested first-game-onwards we've had since the post-League-Play reboot.
Pre-Paris power rankings drop next month.