Game | Valorant |
---|---|
Founded | 2020 |
First season | 2021 |
Owner(s) | Riot Games |
Director | Leo Faria [1] |
Country | Global |
Official website | valorantesports |
The Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) is a global competitive esports tournament series for the video game Valorant organised by Riot Games, the game's developers. The series runs multiple events throughout each season, culminating in Valorant Champions, the top-level event of the tour. The VCT was announced in 2020, with its inaugural season taking place in 2021.
In November 2020, Riot Games announced the first Valorant Champions Tour, a tournament series divided into three tiers: Challengers, Masters, and Champions. Challengers would act as the lowest tier, split into seven regions: North America, Brazil, Latin America (Hispanic America), EMEA, Southeast Asia (later included South Asia and Oceania, become to Asia-Pacific), Korea, Japan. Teams that advance past Challengers would move on to Masters, where teams would not be divided by regions anymore, and the top 16 teams from Masters would move on to Champions, the final tournament of VCT. [2] In February 2021, they announced the VCT Game Changers, a supplementary tournament initiative for women and marginalized genders. [3]
Riot hired esports infrastructure company Nerd Street Gamers as operators and producers for all North American Challengers and Masters events. [4] [5] They also hired several third-party companies to broadcast their events, such as Liga de Videojuegos Profesional (LVP) for their Spanish-language broadcasts and LetsPlay.Live for their Oceania broadcasts. [6] The 2021 Champions tournament took place on December 1–12 at the Verti Music Hall in Berlin, Germany, concluding with team Acend defeating Gambit Esports in the grand finals by a score of 3–2. [7] [8]
Over 10,000 teams competed in the VCT in 2021. Outside of Champions, VCT saw its highest viewership at the Reykjavik Masters tournament in May, with a peak viewership of 1,085,850. The Champions grand finals match in December reached a peak viewership of 1,089,068, making it the VCT's highest peak viewership. [9] [10]
Riot made several changes to the format of VCT for its second iteration. While the overall structure of Challengers, Masters, and Champions remained unchanged, it reduced the number of stages of Challengers and Masters events from three to two. VCT Challengers began on February 11, 2022. [11] The 2022 Champions Tournament took place from September 1 to 18 in Istanbul, Turkey. [12]
Riot Games announced a new format starting in 2023. [13] The season will be split into three international regions – Americas, EMEA, and Pacific instead of the 7 regions format used in previous years. Each international region will have its own International League that replaces the Challengers to become the domestic competitions to qualify for Masters and Champions. On September 21, 2022, Riot Games announced the thirty teams that had been selected as part of their new partnership format. [14] [15]
In a June 2023 press conference, Riot COO Whalen Rozelle confirmed that Valorant would launch in China in July under the name 无畏契约 ("Fearless Contract"), with hopes to launch a VCT league there in 2024. [16] Shortly after in August, Riot announced a fourth regional league for China, raising the number of partnered teams to 40. [17] A number of Chinese teams (including Edward Gaming and Bilibili Gaming) already competed in locally-organised leagues.
As of 2023, 30 teams are selected to be partner teams in International Leagues for five years with 10 teams per region. Non-partner teams compete in many sub-regions of Challengers events to qualify for "Ascension" events. The Ascension events will have one winner per region, which earns them a two-year promotion into their regions' International League. The promoted teams will have a chance to qualify for the global tournaments (Masters and Champions), as well as get benefits provided to other partnered teams. Each year through the Challengers promotion system, the three International Leagues will expand by one team each, until they reach a cap of 14 teams in each region in 2027. [18] [19]
Teams in each International League will play on LAN in a centralized local: Los Angeles for the Americas League, Berlin for the EMEA League, and Seoul for the Pacific League. [20]
Americas | EMEA | Pacific |
---|---|---|
Partner teams (2023–27) | ||
100 Thieves | BBL Esports | DetonatioN FocusMe |
Cloud9 | Fnatic | DRX |
Evil Geniuses | FUT Esports | Gen.G |
Furia Esports | GiantX [lower-alpha 1] | Global Esports |
KRÜ Esports | Karmine Corp | Paper Rex |
Leviatán | KOI | Rex Regum Qeon |
LOUD | Natus Vincere | T1 |
MIBR | Team Heretics | Talon Esports |
NRG | Team Liquid | Team Secret |
Sentinels | Team Vitality | ZETA DIVISION |
Non-partner teams | ||
G2 Esports [lower-alpha 2] | Gentle Mates | Bleed eSports |
Right from global launch, although Valorant had not been licensed for release in China, Riot Games showed favor towards Chinese players by allowed Chinese teams to participate in global tournaments (Masters and Champions) through achievements in domestic tournaments from locally third party organizations. [lower-alpha 3]
Since 2024, with Valorant licensed for release in China, Riot directly organizes a own league specifically for the only country that they considers a pro region on the same level as the three International Leagues for many countries, as well as competition slots for only teams from China at Masters and Champions. [24] They also soon announced to host a Masters in Shanghai and released new Chinese agent Iso alongside previous agent Sage. The China League later has been hosted centralized local in Shanghai.
Partner teams (2024–27) |
---|
All Gamers |
Bilibili Gaming |
Edward Gaming |
FunPlus Phoenix |
JD Gaming |
Nova Esports |
Titan Esports Club |
Trace Esports |
Tyloo |
Wolves Esports |
Non-partner teams |
Dragon Ranger Gaming |
The Valorant Masters is an biannual Valorant international tournament organized by Riot Games in the middle of years since 2021. [25] [26] Similar to the Mid-Season Invitational from League of Legends , it is the second most important international Valorant tournament after Champions. [27] Teams must place near the top of their regional league to qualify for Masters. [28] [29]
The Valorant Champions is the annual professional Valorant world championship tournament hosted by Riot Games and is the culmination of each VCT season. Teams compete for the world champion title of Valorant esports.
Non-partner teams compete in Challengers events of sub-regions to qualify for "Ascension", the yearly promotion event to the respective International Leagues. Teams are promoted to the International Leagues for a two-year stay, after which they will have to compete in Challengers again.
As of 2023, there are 23 minor regional leagues across the three international territories. [30]
Valorant Game Changers is a series of domestic competitions for women and other marginalized genders within Valorant esports. [31] Teams that finish in top places will qualify for the Valorant Game Changers Championship, a competition that is the world championship event of Game Changers series.
Season | Americas | EMEA | Pacific | China |
---|---|---|---|---|
2023 | LOUD | Team Liquid | Paper Rex | League did not exist |
2024 Kick-off | Sentinels | Karmine Corp | Gen.G | Edward Gaming |
2024 Stage 1 | ||||
2024 Stage 2 |
Year | Event | Location | Final | No. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Winner | Score | Runner-up | |||||
2021 | Stage 2 Masters [lower-alpha 4] | Reykjavík | Sentinels | 3 | 0 | Fnatic | 10 |
Stage 3 Masters | Berlin | Gambit Esports | 3 | 0 | Team Envy | 16 | |
Champions | Berlin | Acend | 3 | 2 | Gambit Esports | 16 | |
2022 | Stage 1 Masters | Reykjavík | OpTic Gaming | 3 | 0 | LOUD | 12 |
Stage 2 Masters | Copenhagen | FunPlus Phoenix | 3 | 2 | Paper Rex | 12 | |
Champions | Istanbul | LOUD | 3 | 1 | OpTic Gaming | 16 | |
2023 | LOCK//IN [lower-alpha 5] | São Paulo | Fnatic | 3 | 2 | LOUD | 32 |
Masters Tokyo | Chiba [lower-alpha 6] | Fnatic | 3 | 0 | Evil Geniuses | 12 | |
Champions | Los Angeles [lower-alpha 7] | Evil Geniuses | 3 | 1 | Paper Rex | 16 | |
2024 | Madrid Masters | Madrid | Sentinels | 3 | 2 | Gen.G | 8 |
Shanghai Masters | Shanghai | 12 | |||||
Champions | Seoul | 16 |
* Team or organization no longer participates in Valorant esports.
* Team not currently partnered and competing in sub-regional Challengers or third-party competition.
Team | Region | Champions | Masters | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|
Acend [lower-alpha 8] | EMEA | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Evil Geniuses | Americas | 1 | 0 | 1 |
LOUD | Americas | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Fnatic | EMEA | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Sentinels | Americas | 0 | 2 | 2 |
FunPlus Phoenix [lower-alpha 9] | EMEA | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Gambit Esports | EMEA | 0 | 1 | 1 |
OpTic Gaming | Americas | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Region | Champions | Masters | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Americas | 2 | 3 | 5 |
EMEA | 1 | 4 | 5 |
Pacific | 0 | 0 | 0 |
China | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Year | Location | Final | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Champion | Score | Runner-up | |||
2022 | Berlin | G2 Gozen | 3 | 2 | Shopify Rebellion GC |
2023 | São Paulo | Shopify Rebellion | 3 | 2 | Team Liquid Brazil |
The original masters trophy was unveiled by Riot at a May 2021 media preview event in the build up to Masters Reykjavik. It features a metal bottom and a glass top.
The trophy was redesigned in 2023, again by Volpin Props, to be reusable for Masters tournaments in multiple regions. [32] It stands at 18 inches and features a swappable 'Radianite' core. For Masters Tokyo, it featured duelist Yoru's ultimate Oni mask. The body of the trophy is palladium-plated with plastic components.
The Valorant Champions trophy was first unveiled ahead of Valorant Champions 2021. Also designed and built by Volpin Props of Atlanta, Georgia, it stands at 2 feet tall and is partially 3D-printed, with 24 karat gold decoration overlayed. [33]
Fnatic is a professional esports organisation headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded on 23 July 2004, it has players from around the world competing in several games, including Apex Legends, Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, FC Online, Heroes of the Storm, League of Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, and Valorant.
Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP) is a professional esports organisation based in Sweden that is best known for its Counter-Strike teams. In 2012, the team reformed with a Counter Strike: Global Offensive lineup upon the release of the game. Aside from Counter-Strike, the organisation has teams in Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, FIFA, Rocket League, Fortnite Battle Royale and League of Legends. They formerly had teams in Overwatch, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Paladins.
Team SoloMid, commonly referred to by its abbreviation TSM, is a professional esports organization based in the United States. It was founded in September 2009 by Andy "Reginald" Dinh. TSM currently fields players in Apex Legends, Dota 2, Fortnite, Rocket League, Guilty Gear Strive, Super Smash Bros., Valorant, and Counter-Strike 2. The organization also briefly owned an Overwatch team.
The League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) is the professional League of Legends esports league run by Riot Games in the EMEA region, in which ten teams compete. Each annual season of play is divided into three splits, winter, spring and summer, all consisting of three weeks of round-robin tournament play, which then conclude with play-off tournaments between the top six teams. At the end of the season, the top performing teams qualify for the annual League of Legends World Championship. The LEC represents the highest level of League of Legends play in the EMEA.
Sentinels is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. The organization was founded as the League of Legends team Phoenix1 and competed in the North American League of Legends Championship Series. In June 2018, Phoenix1 rebranded to Sentinels. The company currently fields teams in Valorant, Apex Legends, and Halo.
League of Legends esports is the professional competition of the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It is developed and published by Riot Games and was first released in 2009.
FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) is a Chinese professional esports organization owned by video game developer FunPlus. It has teams competing in League of Legends, Valorant, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
Valorant is a free-to-play first-person tactical hero shooter developed and published by Riot Games, for Windows. Teased under the codename Project A in October 2019, the game began a closed beta period with limited access on April 7, 2020, followed by a release on June 2, 2020. The development of the game started in 2014. Valorant takes inspiration from the Counter-Strike series, borrowing several mechanics such as the buy menu, spray patterns, and inaccuracy while moving.
The 2021 Valorant Champions was an esports tournament for the first-person shooter video game Valorant. It was the first-ever edition of VALORANT Champions, the culmination of Valorant Champions Tour, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer Riot Games. The tournament was held from December 1 to 12 in Berlin, Germany. Sixteen teams qualified for the tournament based on their result via 2021 VALORANT Masters: Stage 3, the regional Circuit Point standings in the year, and the regional Last Chance Qualifiers.
The 2022 Valorant Champions was an esports tournament for the video game Valorant. This was the second edition of the Valorant Champions, the crowning event of the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) for the 2022 Valorant competitive season. The tournament was held from August 31 to September 18, 2022, in Istanbul, Turkey.
The 2022 Valorant Champions Tour (VCT): Stage 1 Masters, also known as the Valorant Masters Reykjavík 2022, was an international tournament organized by Riot Games for the first-person shooter game Valorant, as part of the Valorant Champions Tour's 2022 competitive season. The tournament ran from April 10–24, 2022, in Reykjavík, Iceland. The city also previously hosted the 2021 VCT Stage 2 Masters.
The 2022 Valorant Champions Tour (VCT): Stage 2 Masters, also known as the Masters Copenhagen, was an international esports tournament organized by Riot Games for the first-person shooter game Valorant, as part of the Valorant Champions Tour's 2022 competitive season. The tournament ran from July 10–24, 2022 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Tyson Van Ngo, better known as TenZ, is a Canadian professional Valorant player for Sentinels. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest Valorant players of all time.
Paper Rex is an esports organization based in Singapore. The organization was co-founded in January 2020 by Harley "dsn" Örwall, Nikhil "nikH" Hathiramani, Matthew Djojonegoro and Gad Tan. The organisation is mainly known for their Valorant division, being announced as one of the pioneer franchises in Valorant's premier competition, VCT 2023.
The 2023 Valorant Champions was an esports tournament for the video game Valorant. This was the third edition of the Valorant Champions, the crowning event of the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) for the 2023 Valorant competitive season. The tournament was held between August 6 and August 26, 2023 in Los Angeles and Inglewood, California, United States. Sixteen teams qualified for the tournament based on their result in the regular season leagues, 2023 Masters Tokyo, and the regional Last Chance Qualifiers.
GiantX is a European esports organisation with active rosters in League of Legends and Valorant. The organisation was created as a result of a merger between Excel Esports and Giants Gaming in December 2023.
The 2024 Valorant Champions Tour: Madrid Masters, also known as VCT Masters Madrid 2024, was an global tournament organized by Riot Games for the first-person shooter game Valorant as part of the Valorant Champions Tour 2024 competitive season. The tournament was held from March 14–24, 2024, in Madrid, Spain. The finalists of each regional league of VCT Kickoffs competed in the first major tournament of the season, which included the Americas League, EMEA League, Pacific League, and the China League.
The 2023 Valorant Champions Tour: Tokyo Masters was an international esports tournament organized by Riot Games for the first-person shooter game Valorant, as part of the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2023 competitive season. Although officially named Tokyo Masters, the tournament ran from June 11–25, 2023 in Chiba, Japan, instead of Tokyo.
The 2024 Valorant Champions will be the fourth edition of the Valorant Champions, the world championship esports tournament organized by Riot Games for the first-person shooter game Valorant. The tournament will run from August 1–25, 2024.
The 2024 Valorant Champions Tour: Shanghai Masters, also known as VCT Masters Shanghai 2024, is an upcoming global tournament organized by Riot Games for the first-person shooter game Valorant as part of the Valorant Champions Tour 2024 competitive season. The tournament is scheduled to be held from May 23 to June 9, 2024, in Shanghai, China.