Riot already has big plans for the professional Valorant esport scene next year as the company just introduced the new Valorant Champions Tour, a new global tournament series that will feature teams play in regional comopetitions before making their way up to compete with the best in the world.
According to Riot, tournaments will take place in North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia, but no specific tournaments or dates have been announced yet.
The Champions Tour will aim to cultivate the Valorant esport scene at every level starting with the more frequent Valorant Challengers tournaments in which teams can compete through local tournaments to get a spot to battle it out with the higher tier teams of the game. The Challengers will feature multiple tournaments over the course of six weeks, and there will be open qualifiers for each tournament.
The top teams at the Valorant Challengers events will get a chance to compete in the Masters event, which will be regional for the time being due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Riot says that they are planning to make Masters tournaments interntional LAN events in the future.
Teams have to accumulate Circuit Points to qualify for the Champions event, which is pretty much the Valorant version of the popular League of Legends Worlds tournament. It will be a two-week long event featuring the best sixteen teams from across the globe.
"We've spent a couple of years now talking to players, teams, fans, prospective partners, and other stakeholders, and we're extremely excited to launch our first official season," Riot Games Senior Director of Esports Whalen Rozelle said in a statement. "Our focus will be on elevating and showcasing the creative and talented players who are shaping this game across the globe."
The first official Riot-managed Valorant event is set to take place from December 3-8, with the First Strike event, featuring eight teams battling it out for a prize pool of $100,000.
Related: Valorant Reveals New Top Leaderboard Player From NA
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