Guide To The VALORANT Champions Tour 2021: Schedule, Results, And Highlights

Riot Games’ first formal effort at a worldwide circuit for competitive VALORANT is the VALORANT Champions Tour. The Champions Tour, which arose from the early success of the First Strike tournaments, is a year-long circuit of regional competition culminating in a Champions event to award the first global champion.

We’ve produced a complete guide to keep you updated on everything VALORANT Champions Tour, including the circuit structure, participating teams, schedule, key moments, and more.

The VALORANT Champions Tour was founded on Challenger events, which are regional tournaments that match several teams from each area against one another. The best teams from each Challengers tournament will advance to that region’s Challengers Finals. The best teams from that tournament will go to the next Masters’ event, while the teams with the most VCT points gained per area will advance to the Champions event after the year.

Each area sponsored its competition during the first set of Masters tournaments. In a double-elimination format, eight teams from North America contested. Eight European and Korean teams competed in two GSL-format groups before advancing to a four-team single-elimination tournament. Brazil employed a straightforward single-elimination tournament. While the formats used by each area change, the VCT point breakdown is the same. First place received 100 points, second place received 70 points, and third and fourth place received 45 points apiece. The fifth and sixth-place teams received 20 points apiece, while the seventh and eighth-place teams received 10 points each.

VCT Masters Two Reykjavik featured a double-elimination tournament with ten teams competing. Masters Two, in contrast to Masters One, was a worldwide LAN with teams from all around the world participating. First place received 400 points, second place received 350 points, third place received 300 points, the fourth-place received 250 points. The fifth and sixth place received 175, while the ninth and tenth received 150 points.

At the VCT Masters Three Berlin, sixteen teams fought in four groups, each with its double-elimination bracket. The top two teams from each group advanced to a single-elimination tournament of eight teams. Teams will receive at least 175 VCT points for simply attending and up to 375 if they move to the grand finals. Victorious teams will not gain any points, but they will not need to because they will automatically qualify for Champions. Teams competing in the three Masters matches will gain points toward qualifying for the Champions global championship event. Following Masters Berlin, the last four teams for Champions will be determined by four Last Chance Qualifiers.

The following teams have already qualified for Champions:

Three teams from North America: Sentinels, Team Envy, and one from the NA LCQ (two by circuit points and one via Last Chance Qualifier).

Three European teams will compete: two through circuit points and one through the Last Chance Qualifier (CIS, Turkey, and the Middle East/North Africa teams will qualify through the EU). Acend, Fnatic, and Team Liquid (via EMEA LCQ)

Team Vikings, Vivo Keyd Stars, and FURIA Esports are two Brazilian teams based on circuit points (via SA LCQ)

One team from Latin America was selected based on circuit points. KRU Esports

One team from Japan was selected based on circuit points. Crazy Racoon.

X10 Esports, Team Secret, and FULL SENSE are two Southeast Asian teams represented by circuit points (via APAC LCQ)

One team from Korea was chosen based on circuit points. Strikers of Vision

The winner of the Masters’ Three event

Gambit (EMEA)

VALORANT Champions Tour schedule

Image Source: playvalorant.com

While Riot’s Esports team has not provided precise specifics on tournament formats for specific events, the Champions event is referred to as its own “equivalent of [League of Legends] Worlds.” Will a double-round robin group stage be used, or will a structure that allows for more best-of-threes be used?