Valorant Challengers seems like a viable league after Riot’s announcement

Two days ago, Riot made a major announcement about the upcoming Challengers events for the upcoming year. While there are quite a few major changes, they are mainly concerning the developmental tiers of the Valorant scene. Most of these changes will help in the growth of each of the region’s Tier 2.

In the last few weeks, there was an air of tension in the Valorant community. This was mainly in relation to the new franchising rules which had put a lot of organizations in a fix. With every bit of news that was being released in relation to franchising, there was more and more speculation about the teams who are a part of it and not present.

While the news has added a lot of hope for most organizations to be able to be a part of the main ecosystem of Valorant, in a country like India where the Tier 2 scene has been growing at quite a rapid rate, the news has been received with major applause. The major announcement by Riot is that there are going to be over 20 leagues around the world. While the number is a lot, this gives a lot of professional players a new pathway to getting into the major tournaments.

This in turn has made sure that no team has a particular monopoly on their position in the system. After a certain period, they will be in the league and have to battle to get their spot in the major league. While each challenger split will round up to a playoff tournament. Within this tournament, one team will win it all and be declared the League Champions 

What is the Proposed Valorant VCT 2023 format?

The new league format will be very similar in model to that of the current challengers’ tournament. Within the older formats teams had to face off and qualify from their nations and take part in challengers for their regions. If a team won the regional challengers they would then be a part of the major Valorant Masters’ Tournament. While this format was widely appreciated by all in the Valorant scene, it has been tweeked to include more teams.

Taking an example to explain the new VCT format we will take a team such as Global Esports.

While being one of the major known teams within the APAC region. The team will need to be a part of the open qualifiers of the nation which in this case would be India. Following that they will need to win the tournament and qualify for the challengers of their region. Which in this case would be the APAC region. Following this, the team will need to win their respective Challengers tournament.

If Global Esports does the following they will be able to take part in the International League. Global Esports will now have a spot within the Valorant Internation League for the next two years. After completion of their tenure, they will go back down the path and start again from the tournament in India. One must also note that Valorant Partnered Teams cannot be demoted.

This announcement has made clear that there is a need for each nation to have a Tier 2 system. There is a fair manner for teams who are having a dream run in a particular year to gain an opportunity in the franchising League and have a constant revenue stream.

Developing VALORANT ecosystem stands to benefit the most

While there isn’t a lot of information concerning the teams who are a part of the franchising league. This has caused there to be a lot of speculation on the teams from each region who will be one of the “Partnered Teams”. To make sure that there are new teams who are allowed to be a part of the ecosystem, there another slot will be which is added to the main league. By doing so by 2027 there would be more than 4 teams who will be a part of the exclusive International Valorant League.

Within the APAC region, there were a lot of worries concerning the tier 2 leagues within the nations. As such in India following the news of Velocity having their application rejected, there was worried. This in turn because a situation where many didn’t what the future held for organizations in the sport. Due to this, some teams disbanded, and organizations which started focusing on other games such as Pokemon Unite and BGMI.

This announcement by Riot has been one of the most important ones concerning Valorant. As there is a chance for any team to make it to the international League, teams will need to get better. The race to improve will also promote there being more events based on qualification or event invites as well. 

We could be seeing more Lan tournaments in regions worldwide and have similar reactions to that of the Japan Challengers tournament. The sight of there being thousands of fans shouting and chanting in a union will be amazing. This announcement by Riot has now let the floodgates open for the next year.  There will be new organizations within Valorant causing a stir sooner than later worldwide.