Riot Games has announced that VALORANT Ascension Americas 2025, the region’s promotional tournament, will return to São Paulo, Brazil.
The tier-two competition will take place in October and features a $100,000 (~£74,757) prize pool divided among participating teams. Dates and ticket details will be confirmed at a later date.
Compared to previous years, this year’s VALORANT Ascension Americas tournament will have an adjusted format. This is due to the evaluation process for the two previously promoted VCT Ascension teams, G2 Esports and 2GAME Esports.
Both teams will be evaluated on criteria based on performance. Following the evaluation, the teams will either extend their spot in VCT Americas, compete in Ascension to defend it, or be relegated back to the Challengers League.
As a result, the new VALORANT Ascension tournament will see a total of eight teams instead of six, and will have a play-in phase to cover the scenarios for the invited teams. The third seeds from the Challengers League in Brazil (BR), Latin America (LATAM), and North America (NA) will face off in a single round-robin to determine which teams will advance.
The Play-in phase, however, will only occur if one or no invited teams compete in Ascension.
The advancing team (or teams) will then join the other six Challenger teams (top two seeds from BR, LATAM, and NA) to face off in a Swiss phase, with the top four qualifying for the next phase. All matches will be best-of-three.
In the playoffs, the four remaining teams will then play a double-elimination bracket, featuring best-of-three matches, except the Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final, which will be best-of-five.
How Many Promotion Spots Will Ascension Americas Likely Have?
Depending on the evaluation results for G2 and 2GAME, the number of VCT Americas spots will vary.
Given that performance is a major factor in the process, G2 will likely be able to retain its spot. The team has been consistently in the top three of the league, taking part in international tournaments last year and winning the latest VCT Americas: Stage 1.
On the other hand, 2GAME is currently in a much worse situation, having finished in the bottom half of the standings for both the VCT Americas Kickoff and Stage 1.
