Valorant Champions 2023: All you need to know

The conclusive Valorant tournament of the year, Valorant Champions 2023 is just a week away. The end of the year celebration of Valorant will feature sixteen top teams across the three regional leagues fighting for the top spot. Shrine Expo Hall and KIA Forum in California will host the twenty day long tournament. With a total prize pool of $2.250 M, Valorant Champions 2023 will be the biggest tournament in terms of prize pool. Additionally, 50% cut from the Champions bundle is to be divided amongst the teams. Let’s look at the sixteen teams participating and how they qualified.

Valorant Champions 2023 - Qualified Teams:

Credits: Riot Games // Valorant Champions Tour

A total of sixteen teams will play the Valorant Champions. Out of these sixteen teams, nine automatically qualified via the International Leagues. Additionally, there are four teams from Regional LCQs, making a total of thirteen teams. The last three teams will represent China and qualify through the Chinese qualifiers. The sixteen teams playing the tournament are as follows:

• Regional International Leagues
  • VCT Americas
    • Evil Geniuses
    • NRG esports
    • LOUD
  • VCT EMEA
    • FNATIC
    • FUT esports
    • Team Liquid
  • VCT Pacific
    • DRX
    • Paper Rex
    • T1
• Regional LCQs
  • Americas
    • KRU esports
  • EMEA
    • Giants
    • Natus Vincere
  • Pacific
    • ZETA Division
• China Qualifiers
  • Bilibili Gaming
  • EDward Gaming
  • FunPlus Phoenix

Since Fnatic won the VCT Masters Tokyo 2023, EMEA acquired an additional slot at Valorant Champions. The additional slot meant two EMEA teams qualified from the LCQ. These sixteen teams will fight each other to reach the top.

Valorant Champions 2023 Format:

Similar to previous Valorant Champions, The upcoming tournament can be split into two stages: Group Stage and Playoffs. In the group stage, the sixteen teams are drawn into four groups. The group draws ensured no two teams from the same region were in the same group. This ensured maximum inter-region matchups. The only exception to this was EMEA with five teams. Each of the four groups will play a double-elimination bracket. Two teams from each group will qualify for the playoffs. All the games in the group stage are Best-of-three.

Credit: Riot Games // Valorant Champions Tour

A total of eight teams will qualify for the playoffs (2 * 4 groups). The draws will decide the team’s opponents in the playoffs. The playoffs will feature a double-elimination bracket. Except the grand finals and lower finals will feature best-of-three games. The grand finals and lower finals will feature five maps. The current active map pool is Ascent, Bind, Fracture, Haven, Lotus, Pearl and Split. The Valorant Champions will employ Patch 7.02 with the Deadlock.

Credit: Riot Games // Valorant Champions Tour

Schedule, How to watch and In-game experience:

The tournament starts August 6th 12:00 PM PDT. The twenty-day long tournament will conclude on August 26th. The summary of schedule for the tournament is as follows:

• Group Stage:
  • August 6th - August 13th
  • Day starts 12:00 PM PDT
  • Bo3 games

Credit: Riot Games // Valorant Champions Tour

• Playoffs:
  • August 16th - 26th
    • August 16th - August 20th - First four rounds
    • August 24th - August 26th - Lower Semifinals, Upper Finals, Lower finals, Grand Finals
  • Day starts 12:00 PM PDT

Credits: Riot Games // Valorant Champions Tour

Similar to all the previous Valorant tournaments, Riot Games will broadcast the tournament on Twitch and Youtube. The games will be broadcasted in Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Bahasa, Spanish, Portuguese and multiple other languages. Similar to previous tournaments, players who have linked their Riot account to Twitch will get drops for watching the event.

Credits: Riot Games // Valorant Champions Tour

Additionally, Valorant is introducing an Esports Hub inside of Valorant which is similar to League of Legends. A Champions bundle 2023 will also be introduced in the upcoming patch. The bundle includes a Vandal and a Melee themed around Valorant Champions 2023. Following is the trailer for the upcoming Champion 2023 bundle.

50% of the total earnings from the bundle will be directly awarded to the teams playing the tournament.

You can follow Valorant Champions Tour Twitter for all the updates regarding Valorant Champions 2023.

Credits: Riot Games // Valorant Champions Tour.

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