Game developer Riot Games has unveiled the full list for its VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) off-season schedule.
Called the VALORANT OFF//SEASON, the new initiative aims to provide third-party tournament organisers with a way to host tournaments outside of its regular campaign.
Riot Games has partnered with tournament organisers such as Red Bull, Beyond the Summit and Galaxy Racer to create a range of events. These include open qualifiers, show matches, and invitational tournaments.
Riot will support the tournaments with a dedicated information page, as well as real-life tips and advice on how to create events.
The off-season series was first revealed earlier this month through an event announcement with G-Loot. However, Riot Games has now detailed a full list of events that will take place across EMEA, Asia and the Americas.
VALORANT OFF//SEASON consists of at least 25 off-season tournaments, with Riot Games announcing that there is a possibility of more tournaments being added.
Beyond the Summit, an esports company known for its Dota 2 and CS:GO tournaments, will hold a tournament in Brazil called the Vava BTS Sunset. Meanwhile, esports organisation Galaxy Racer will organise the VALORANT India Invitational.
The Gwangju Esports Series Asia, organised by the South Korea Minstry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the city of Gwangju will invite four teams from Asia to battle against each other. Meanwhile, top MENA and EMEA teams will fight in the BME SUPERDOME. G-Loot’s VALORANT Clash will include top qualified teams from Europe and will last for three weeks.
Interestingly, Riot Games did not mention any specific boundaries for the tournaments, meaning that the organisers themselves will have the opportunity to create events that are suitable for their respective regions.
This means that we may see influencer and content creator-led squads, as well as some large events for amateur and semi-pro players. The Knights arena VALORANT Freezeout, for example, will host 256 teams with custom rules that do not allow for no duplicate agents to be used.
According to Riot Games, the Ludwig x Tarik Invitational will be the first event to kick off the 2023 season. The event is looking to bring together some of the biggest VALORANT teams and content creators.
The tournaments allow Riot to keep the VALORANT scene alive during the off-season, a time where roster moves and speculations usually happen. It will also allow tournament organisers to experiment more with formats and types of events, which will hopefully lead to interesting matches year-round.
All of VCT’s off-season tournaments can be found on the official Riot Games website.
