Game developer Riot Games has unveiled its 2023 VALORANT Champions Tour format, which includes a kick-off tournament for partnered teams in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The one-off three-week tournament, set to take place in February, will feature all VCT partnered teams from its international leagues. The winning organisation will earn its league an extra slot for VCT 2023 Masters.
Following the kick-off event, VCT will commence its first competitive split of the year as teams battle it out in their respective international leagues. In the announcement, Riot Games revealed that the leagues will be based in three cities: Berlin (EMEA), Seoul (Pacific) and Los Angeles (America’s).
The leagues will commence in March and will feature eight weeks of regular-season competition. The first league champions will be crowned in May.
For the 2023 season, there will only be one international league split. However, Riot has confirmed that future seasons will feature two international league competitions. In the announcement, the company stated that this is to provide teams with ‘adequate time’ to set up a base of operations within their regional hubs.
VCT Masters is set to return in June and will feature qualified teams from each international league. The winner of the international event will earn direct qualification into VALORANT Champions 2023, which is scheduled for August.
Finally, Riot announced that Last Chance Qualifiers will return next year as teams who have yet to qualify for Champions will compete for the final allocated slot given to each region. As expected, details regarding VCT’s partnered teams, as well as the location of Masters and Champions, have not yet been disclosed.
In Riot Games’ announcement, further details were also shared regarding its recently announced Challenger Circuit. Next year will feature two Challenger splits, the first of which will begin in January.
As revealed previously, the Challenger Circuit will conclude with Ascension tournaments, which provide opportunities to secure a two-year promotion into the international leagues. These will commence in July. According to a release, the Ascension tournaments will feature teams from more than twenty different Challenger leagues.
The VALORANT Champions Tour is currently concluding its latest season with only four teams remaining at VALORANT Champions 2022. As of this writing, the tournament is the title’s fourth most popular event ever, in terms of peak viewership, according to Esports Charts.
