Games developer Riot Games has announced significant details surrounding the new VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) season, which will start in early 2024.
The season will see several changes, including the introduction of a new league in China, new locations for its global events and updates to VALORANT’s esports calendar.
The current VCT season is set to conclude on August 26th, following the conclusion VALORANT Champions 2023, the game’s world championship. After the tournament, VALORANT teams will enter the off-season, with dozens of tournaments organised by Riot’s partners taking place all over the world. There is no set date for the start of the new VCT season, however, the first announced VCT 2024 event is set to take place sometime in January.
The first change for the new season is the absence of a global season-opening kickoff event. For the 2023 season, Riot flew all VCT teams to Brazil to participate in the LOCK//IN tournament to mark the start of the season, but this time around that will not be the case.
Instead, there will be separate two-week tournaments for each VCT International League to seed the teams for VALORANT Masters Madrid, the first global event of the 2024 campaign. This is the first time that the VCT is coming to Spain with eight spots available for the LAN competition.
An entirely new league is also set to start in China after the game was officially released there in 2023, however, the tournament organiser and game developer was short on details about the league. The addition of VCT China means that there are now four main VALORANT VCT regions. Riot previously confirmed that Shanghai will host the second Masters event of the season, after Madrid.
Also previously announced, the VALORANT Challengers leagues are also being refreshed, and will now last for the entire year. Team affiliate system and loans will also be introduced to “unlock increased player flow between International Leagues, Challengers and Game Changers.” The addition of a new in-game mode called Premier will also serve as an additional path to pro for players.
For the first time ever, new teams have been introduced into VCT’s partner team leagues through the Ascension tournament. The Guard, Gentle Mates and Bleed Esports will each enter the VCT International Leagues in their respective region and participate in the league for the next two years.
Riot has also announced the addition of a point system for the VCT, simply called Championship Points. Detailing the new system, Riot shared the following: “Designed to heighten the crescendo of the season, Championship Points will be the unifying mechanism across International Leagues and Global Tournaments, serving as a measure of each teams’ performance and the qualification mechanism for global events. “
More details about the point system will be announced in the future.
Lastly, the calendar of the 2024 season was announced. The two Masters tournaments will take place in March and May 2023, with VALORANT Champions keeping its August timing. VALORANT Game Changers will take part in November.
The Challengers leagues will be played in three segments, first from February to April, second from May to early August, and the third split from October to December. Every Challengers segment will be followed by playoffs, and the Ascension tournament will be played just after Champions.
