# Valorant Champions Tour

The Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) is a global competitive esports tournament series for the video game Valorant organised by Riot Games, the game's developers. The series runs multiple events throughout each season, culminating in Valorant Champions, the top-level event of the tour. The VCT was announced in 2020, with its inaugural season taking place in 2021.

## History
### 2021–2022: Open-qualifiers era

In November 2020, Riot Games announced the first Valorant Champions Tour, a tournament series divided into three tiers: Challengers, Masters, and Champions. Challengers would act as the lowest tier, split into seven regions: North America, Brazil, Latin America (Hispanic America), EMEA, Southeast Asia (later included South Asia and Oceania, become to Asia-Pacific), Korea, Japan. Teams that advance past Challengers would move on to Masters, where teams would not be divided by regions anymore, and the top 16 teams from Masters would move on to Champions, the final tournament of VCT. In February 2021, they announced the VCT Game Changers, a supplementary tournament initiative for women and marginalized genders.
Riot hired esports infrastructure company Nerd Street Gamers as operators and producers for all North American Challengers and Masters events. They also hired several third-party companies to broadcast their events, such as Liga de Videojuegos Profesional (LVP) for their Spanish-language broadcasts and LetsPlay.Live for their Oceania broadcasts. The 2021 Champions tournament took place on December 1–12 at the Verti Music Hall in Berlin, Germany, concluding with team Acend defeating Gambit Esports in the grand finals by a score of 3–2.
Over 10,000 teams competed in the VCT in 2021. Outside of Champions, VCT saw its highest viewership at the Reykjavík Masters tournament in May, with a peak viewership of 1,085,850. The Champions grand finals match in December reached a peak viewership of 1,089,068, making it the VCT's highest peak viewership.
Riot made several changes to the format of VCT for its second iteration. While the overall structure of Challengers, Masters, and Champions remained unchanged, it reduced the number of stages of Challengers and Masters events from three to two. VCT Challengers began on February 11, 2022. The 2022 Champions Tournament took place from September 1 to 18 in Istanbul, Turkey.

### 2023–present: Partnerships era

Riot Games announced a new format starting in 2023. The season will be split into three international regions – Americas, EMEA, and Pacific instead of the 7 regions format used in previous years. Each international region will have its own International League that replaces the Challengers to become the domestic competitions to qualify for Masters and Champions. On September 21, 2022, Riot Games announced the thirty teams that had been selected as part of their new partnership format.
For China, Riot Games showed favor towards players here by giving Chinese teams a number of direct slots to participate in global tournaments (Masters and Champions) through third parties competitions in Hong Kong server, instead of having to play through Pacific league. In a June 2023 press conference, Riot COO Whalen Rozelle confirmed that Valorant would launch in China in July under the name 无畏契约 (lit. 'Fearless Contract'), with hopes to launch a VCT league there in 2024. Shortly after in August, Riot announced an own regional league for China, and raising the number of partnered teams to 40.

## Leagues and format
### Franchised leagues
#### International Leagues

As of 2025, there are 40 partnered teams in each of the four regions, competing in the VCT. Each region also contains 2 'ascended' teams, who also compete but do not have a permanent spot in their region. Non-partnered teams compete in many sub-regions of Challengers events to qualify for "Ascension" events. The Ascension events will have one winner per region, which earns them a two-year promotion into their regions' International League. The promoted teams will have a chance to qualify for the global tournaments (Masters and Champions), as well as get benefits provided to other partnered teams. Each year through the Challengers promotion system, the three International Leagues will expand by one team each, until they reach a cap of 12 teams in each region in 2025 (beforehand this was supposed to be a 14-team cap by 2027).
Teams in each International League will play on LAN in a centralized local: the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles for VCT Americas, Riot Games Arena in Berlin for VCT EMEA, VCT CN Arena in Shanghai for VCT CN, and Seoul for VCT Pacific.
| Americas | EMEA | Pacific |
| Partner teams (2023–27) |||
| 100 Thieves | BBL Esports | DetonatioN FocusMe |
| Cloud9 | Fnatic | DRX |
| Evil Geniuses | FUT Esports | Gen.G |
| Furia Esports | GiantX | Global Esports |
| KRÜ Esports | Karmine Corp | Paper Rex |
| Leviatán | Movistar KOI | Rex Regum Qeon |
| LOUD | Natus Vincere | T1 |
| MIBR | Team Heretics | Talon Esports |
| NRG | Team Liquid | Team Secret |
| Sentinels | Team Vitality | ZETA DIVISION |
| Non-partner teams |||
| G2 Esports | Gentle Mates | BOOM Esports |
| 2Game Esports | Apeks | Nongshim RedForce |

#### China League

Right from global launch, although Valorant had not been licensed for release in China, Riot Games showed favor towards Chinese players by allowing Chinese teams to participate in global tournaments (Masters and Champions) through achievements in domestic tournaments organized by third parties, played at Hong Kong server.
Since 2024, with Valorant licensed for release servers in mainland, Riot launched the VCT CN specifically for the only country that they considers a pro region on the same level as the three International Leagues for many countries, as well as competition slots for only teams from China at Masters and Champions. They also announced the second Masters event of the year to take place in Shanghai and released a new Chinese agent Iso alongside previous agent Sage. The China League is based at the VCT CN Arena in Shanghai.
* Partner teams (2024–27)
* All Gamers
* Bilibili Gaming
* Edward Gaming
* FunPlus Phoenix
* JD Gaming
* Nova Esports
* Titan Esports Club
* Trace Esports
* Tyloo
* Wolves Esports
* Non-partner teams
* Dragon Ranger Gaming
* Xi Lai Gaming

#### Valorant Masters

The Valorant Masters is an biannual Valorant international tournament organized by Riot Games in the middle of years since 2021. Similar to the Mid-Season Invitational for League of Legends, it is the second most important international Valorant tournament after Champions. There are usually 2 masters tournament each year. Teams must place near the top of their regional league to qualify for Masters.

#### Valorant Champions

The Valorant Champions is the annual professional Valorant world championship tournament hosted by Riot Games and is the culmination of each VCT season. It is also the hardest tournament to qualify for. Teams compete for the world champion title of Valorant esports.

### Non-franchised leagues
#### Challengers and Ascension

Non-partner teams compete in Challengers events of sub-regions in Americas, EMEA and Pacific to qualify for "Ascension", the yearly promotion event to the respective International Leagues. Originally, it was announced that teams would have two-year stays in their International League after winning Ascension, with one team promoted every year until 2026, when two teams would be promoted every year until 2028. The leagues would have 14 teams each, totaling to 42 teams across the three leagues.
On June 21, 2024, Riot announced changes to the Ascension format from 2025, with teams promoted to the International Leagues for one-year stays instead, after which they would be relegated to Challengers again if they did not finish in the top 8 in their region's International League; if they qualified for Champions however, they get to stay for another year; if they finished between 5th and 8th in the International League, they qualify for that year's Ascension for a chance to keep their place in the league.
In 2023-24, there are 23 minor regional leagues across the three international territories. From 2025, decreased to 15.

### Valorant Game Changers

Valorant Game Changers is a series of domestic competitions for women and other marginalized genders within Valorant esports. Teams that finish in top places qualify for the Valorant Game Changers Championship, the world championship event of Game Changers, and also earn the chance to be promoted to their region's Challengers league.

## Results
### International Leagues & China League winners

| Season | Americas | EMEA | Pacific | China |
| 2023 | LOUD | Team Liquid | Paper Rex | League did not exist |
| 2024 Kickoff | Sentinels | Karmine Corp | Gen.G | Edward Gaming |
| 2024 Stage 1 | 100 Thieves | Fnatic | Paper Rex | Edward Gaming |
| 2024 Stage 2 | Leviatán | Fnatic | Gen.G | Edward Gaming |
| 2025 Kickoff | G2 Esports | Team Vitality | DRX | Edward Gaming |

### Global tournaments

| Year | Event | Location | Final | Final | Final | Final | No. |
| Year | Event | Location | Winner | Score | Score | Runner-up | No. |
| 2021 | Stage 2 Masters | Reykjavík | Sentinels | 3 | 0 | Fnatic | 10 |
| 2021 | Stage 3 Masters | Berlin | Gambit Esports | 3 | 0 | Team Envy | 16 |
| 2021 | Champions | Berlin | Acend | 3 | 2 | Gambit Esports | 16 |
| 2022 | Stage 1 Masters | Reykjavík | OpTic Gaming | 3 | 0 | LOUD | 12 |
| 2022 | Stage 2 Masters | Copenhagen | FunPlus Phoenix | 3 | 2 | Paper Rex | 12 |
| 2022 | Champions | Istanbul | LOUD | 3 | 1 | OpTic Gaming | 16 |
| 2023 | LOCK//IN | São Paulo | Fnatic | 3 | 2 | LOUD | 32 |
| 2023 | Masters Tokyo | Chiba | Fnatic | 3 | 0 | Evil Geniuses | 12 |
| 2023 | Champions | Los Angeles | Evil Geniuses | 3 | 1 | Paper Rex | 16 |
| 2024 | Masters Madrid | Madrid | Sentinels | 3 | 2 | Gen.G | 8 |
| 2024 | Masters Shanghai | Shanghai | Gen.G | 3 | 2 | Team Heretics | 12 |
| 2024 | Champions | Seoul | Edward Gaming | 3 | 2 | Team Heretics | 16 |
| 2025 | Masters Bangkok | Bangkok | T1 | 3 | 2 | G2 Esports | 8 |
| 2025 | Masters Toronto | Toronto | | | | | 12 |
| 2025 | Champions | Paris | | | | | 16 |

#### Teams won titles

* Team or organization no longer participates in Valorant esports.
| Team | Region | Champions | Masters | Total |
| Acend | EMEA | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| LOUD | Americas | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Evil Geniuses | Americas | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Edward Gaming | China | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Fnatic | EMEA | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Sentinels | Americas | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Gambit Esports | EMEA | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| OpTic Gaming | Americas | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| FunPlus Phoenix | EMEA | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Gen.G | Pacific | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| T1 | Pacific | 0 | 1 | 1 |

#### Regions' titles

| Region | Champions | Masters | Total |
| Americas | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| EMEA | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Pacific | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| China | 1 | 0 | 1 |

### Ascension winners

| Season | Americas | EMEA | Pacific | China |
| 2023 | The Guard | Gentle Mates | Bleed eSports | Dragon Ranger Gaming |
| 2024 | 2Game Esports | Apeks | Sin Prisa Gaming | Xi Lai Gaming |

### Valorant Game Changers Championship

| Year | Location | Final | Final | Final | Final |
| Year | Location | Champion | Score | Score | Runner-up |
| 2022 | Berlin | G2 Gozen | 3 | 2 | Shopify Rebellion GC |
| 2023 | São Paulo | Shopify Rebellion | 3 | 2 | Team Liquid Brazil |
| 2024 | Berlin | Shopify Rebellion | 3 | 0 | MIBR GC |

## Awards
### Masters

The original masters trophy was unveiled by Riot at a May 2021 media preview event in the build up to Masters Reykjavik. It features a metal bottom and a glass top.
The trophy was redesigned in 2023, again by Volpin Props, to be reusable for Masters tournaments in multiple regions. It stands at 18 inches (46 cm) and features a swappable 'Radianite' core. For Masters Tokyo, it featured duelist Yoru's ultimate Oni mask. The body of the trophy is palladium-plated with plastic components.

### Champions

The Valorant Champions trophy was first unveiled ahead of Valorant Champions 2021. Also designed and built by Volpin Props of Atlanta, Georgia, it stands at 2 feet (61 cm) tall and is partially 3D-printed, with 24 karat gold decoration overlayed.