Starting from 2026, the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) International Leagues will be locked at 12 teams, with Ascension teams now having a chance to extend their stay in the Tier 1 circuit.
Both the tenure of existing teams in the VCT as well as which Ascension teams to add will be decided with the help of newly established promotion and relegation rules.
All VCT Ascension Promotion and Relegation Rules Explained
Originally, when the Challengers and Ascension leagues was announced, Ascension teams were supposed to join the VCT circuit for two years before returning to the tier-two league.
Additionally, the total number of teams in the International Leagues would have increased every season until there was 42 teams across all regions.
However, this system had a major drawback as the Ascension teams performing well would still have to face automatic relegation.
To address this concern, Riot Games introduced a performance-based promotion and relegation system that allows teams to move between Challengers, Ascension and VCT based on their results. Here’s how it works now:
- If an Ascension team qualifies for VALORANT Champions, it will automatically extend its VCT contract for another season. In case both Ascension organisations from a region make it to Champions, the better-performing team will stay, while the other will have to fight for its spot at Ascension next year
- Ascension teams that reach the VCT Stage 2 Playoffs will also earn the chance to play at next year’s Ascension
- However, if either or both fail to advance to Stage 2 Playoffs or top eight in the Championship Points leaderboard, they’ll be relegated back to their respective Challengers Leagues. This guarantees the addition of two new Ascension teams to VCT
At the moment, only G2 Esports has qualified for VALORANT Champions Paris based on Championship Points and is pretty close to securing its spot in VCT Americas for another year. Its rival, 2G Esports, will have to pull off a miracle run in Americas Stage 2 and outperform G2 at Champions — which seems unlikely — if it wants to turn the tables around.
