Riot Games just recently announced via Twitter and YouTube their upcoming plans in 2021 which included one of their biggest and newest project, the Valorant Champions Tour. Riot's latest project is a global tournament series where teams around the world will compete in the qualifiers en route to the global stage, where the first ever world champion will be crowned.

The path to the global stage begins with Valorant Challengers, a regional tournament that will take place in Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. This tournament will commence on January 2021. Teams that succeed in the Challengers will proceed to Valorant Masters which will happen on March 2021, where the top teams in each region will compete for a spot for Valorant Champions. There will be three cycles of the Challengers and Masters tournaments in order to increase the chances of other teams to compete for a slot in their culmination event which will happen on December 2021.

Riot has also announced that the Masters tournaments are meant to happen on an international stage, however due to the COVID-19 outbreak the developers are forced to organize them as regional events similar to their First Strike tournaments to help the Valorant competitive scene in this trying times.

Given the success that Riot showcased with how they conducted League of Legends' Worlds during the pandemic as well as the popularity of their newest first person shooter game, it came to no surprise that the company decided to formalize the Valorant esports scene through a global circuit. Valorant may not be the only game that will have a professionalized esports scene, as their other titles such as League of Legends: Wild Rift and Legends of Runeterra could potentially follow the trend as well.


ClutchPoints Gaming