The Carcassonne Champions League is an individual tournament for players from all over the world.

Each country can be represented by at least one player. The number of players from an association depends on the country’s position in the association rankings, as well as additional achievements by the country or individual players.

The winner of the Carcassonne Champions League will earn a spot at the World Championship in Herne, Germany.

 

The tournament consists of a Qualification stage, League stage, and Playoffs, with all games played in a Best of Three or Best of Five format.

 

Dates

Qualification:

• Registration open: 9.Oct 2025
• Registration deadline: 9.Nov 2025
• Draw: 15 or 16.Nov
• Qualification dates: 17.Nov - 28.Dec 2025

 

Main Stage:

• Registration deadline: 28.Dec
• Draw: 29.Dec 2025 - 4.Jan 2026
• League stage: 5.Jan - 8.Feb 2026
• Playoffs stage: 9.Feb - 15.Mar 2026

More details about the new League format coming soon…

 

Major updates for CCL 2026 compared to CCL 2025

 

Qualification:

• Format unchanged, same number of players
• +4 Main Stage spots for countries ranked 33–52 with simpler qualification path (fewer matches)

 

Main Stage:

• 60 players (instead of 48)
• +8 direct tickets for associations ranked 25–32
• Group Stage replaced with League Stage (completely new format)
• 5 matches per player (no change)

 

Playoffs:

• Unchanged

Total number of players for the CCL 2026 Main Stage: 60

Direct tickets to the Main Stage: 38

Tickets to Qualification: 88-96. Qualified players: 22

Associations Ranking for the CCL 2026.

 

Direct tickets for associations 1-32 will be allocated to players according to the results of local online championships.
Starting at least from the quarterfinals, the matches of these championships must be played in a Best of 3 format. If the championship is played in a round-robin format from all matches in the Best of 3 format, a playoff is not mandatory.

 

Limitations:

• Not more than 5 players from 1 association: direct tickets and qualifying tickets combined
• Not more than 3 players from 1 association with direct tickets
• Tickets to Q3: A team can receive only 1 additional spot based on the results of WTCOC, ETCOC, Copa América, or the Asian Cup.
• Tickets to Q4: Not more than 1 player from 1 association

 

Qualifications Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 will be held separately.

Number of qualified players to the Main CCL Stage:

• Q1: 10
• Q2: 8
• Q3: 2
• Q4: 2