Trailblazer Series 2026: Project Kizuna begins on October 5 with a 14-team European field assembled through invitations, knockout routes and an open qualifier. The online competition runs through November 15 and lists a €1,000 prize pool. Its published event page had not yet finalized the group-stage or playoff details when checked.
Six organizations enter through direct invitations: ALTERNATE aTTaX Ruby, Caldya Esport GC, Game Actor Esports GC, Habos Babos, Lost Puppies GC and ZennIT Orange GC. Their places establish the initial half of the field without requiring them to pass through the September open bracket.
Chainsmoker Cats and Melilla Titans GC earned positions through separate knockout routes. The remaining six places belong to Mbappe Special, ISKRA, Poyo Esports GC, Bitfix Zero, REH Misora and Ranked Connoisseurs GC from the open qualifier. Together, those paths produce the confirmed 14-team lineup.
The mix of entry routes gives the event a useful competitive structure even before the groups are posted. Invited teams arrive with recognition from the organizer, while qualified teams enter after already playing elimination matches. Neither route guarantees main-event performance, and the unresolved draw will determine how quickly those backgrounds meet.
The open qualifier built the competitive base
The open qualifier ran online in Europe from September 17 through September 20. It used patch 13.05 and included 16 teams in a triple-elimination bracket. Most matches were best-of-one, while the qualifying matches were best-of-three series.
That format rewarded both recovery and adaptability. A triple-elimination structure allowed more than one setback, but best-of-one rounds left little room to repair a poor map after it started. Reaching the qualifying series therefore required teams to survive several different pressure conditions before playing for a main-event place.
Mbappe Special and ISKRA are explicitly listed among the teams advancing from that qualifier, with four additional open-qualifier places completing the main field. The event page now provides the authoritative participant list, while the qualifier record explains how those teams reached Project Kizuna.
The main event is scheduled across a much longer window than the qualifier, beginning October 5 and ending November 15. That span gives room for a group phase followed by playoffs, but the exact format and match schedule remained marked TBD in the checked listing.
It would be premature to assign teams to groups or state an opening matchup before those entries are published. The confirmed news is the event start, its complete 14-team field and the routes used to fill it. Readers following a specific roster should use the updated event page once the organizer adds the draw.
The listed purse is €1,000, shown at approximately $1,150 on the event page. That amount establishes the scale of the competition without changing its development purpose. The field connects established Game Changers names, invited projects and teams that emerged from open competition.
What remains to be confirmed
The two unresolved pieces are the group-stage arrangement and the playoff structure. Until both are published, claims about advancement thresholds, elimination rules or a team’s path to the title would be speculative. A careful preview distinguishes those open questions from the facts already established.
Once the schedule appears, the first check should compare the listed participants with the confirmed 14-team field and note whether any administrative replacement has occurred. Qualifier events can change after registration, so the live event page should remain the source for final pairings rather than an older bracket image.
For now, Project Kizuna has a clear verified identity: a European online tournament running from early October into mid-November, with teams drawn from three qualification routes. That combination gives developing rosters a longer competitive setting after the short, high-pressure qualifier that selected much of the field.
Project Kizuna starts with 14 confirmed teams and runs through November 15. Six invited squads, two knockout qualifiers and six open-qualifier teams make up the field. The group and playoff details still require an official update, so the opening coverage should stop short of inventing pairings or advancement rules.
