Gaming and esports giant Riot Games announced the organizations that were approved for the inaugural year of their VALORANT partnership program this past week with a number of surprises on (and off) the list. In addition to the partnered organization announcements, Riot also gave fans further insight into how the VALORANT competitive scene will operate next season and beyond.
The Format: Next year will mark the beginning of a new top tier in VALORANT esports with three international leagues being formed and made up of ten partners a piece. The first region is “VCT Americas”, which will be based out of Los Angeles. The second region is “VCT EMEA”, which will be based in Berlin and will consist of teams from Europe, Middle East, and Africa. The third and final region is “VCT Pacific” and will be based out of Seoul. The new season is set to kickoff in February 2023 with a three-week preseason tournament involving all thirty teams in São Paolo, Brazil. The winning team/region will award their league an extra slot at the first Masters event of the year as well.
Speaking of team, here’s who made it through the partner process:
VCT Americas: 100 Thieves, Cloud9, Evil Geniuses, FURIA, KRÜ Esports, Leviatán, LOUD, MIBR, NRG, and Sentinels
VCT EMEA: Fnatic, FUT Esports, KOI, Karmine Corp, Natus Vincere, Team Liquid, Team Vitality, Heretics, BBL Esports, and Giants Gaming
VCT Pacific: Detonation Gaming, DRX, Gen.G, Global Esports, Paper Rex, Rex Regum Qeon, T1, Talon Esports, Team Secret, and ZETA Division
In some cases even more surprising than the organizations that were granted partner status, here are the teams that didn’t make it in for the inaugural partnered season:
Out: OpTic Gaming, TSM, XSET, G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, Ninjas in Pyjamas, FPX, MAD Lions, BIG, Guild Esports, Acend, EDward Gaming, XERXIA, DAMWON Gaming, BOOM Esports, and many more.
All is not lost for the organizations who missed the cut though. While it is a huge disappointment in the near term, those organizations will have a chance to join these leagues in future years through Challengers Ascension tournaments. For the teams that did make partnered status, they will receive additional funding from Riot enroute to kicking off the 2023 season in February.
Image from: Riot Games
