Italy and Portugal get their own Challengers leagues

Riot Games has announced the addition of two new Challengers leagues for Italy and Portugal. Recall that last season teams from these countries were included in VALORANT Regional Leagues 2022 Spain: Rising.

Italy has an incredible population of players and VALORANT is one of the most popular games in the country. Fan interest is there, and streamers have also begun to capitalize on this by helping grow the VALORANT community in the region.

Portugal also received an invitation to VALORANT - and no, we don't mean it, because Pearl is inspired by the nation. The region has been the focus of VALORANT since launch and has a large number of esports players and fans. All this, combined with an already well developed amateur esports scene, makes the country an ideal place to develop the next generation of esports professionals.

The Italian tournament will be organized by PGEsports. In turn, Challengers for Portugal will use the skills of Inygon and Goatpixel.

Earlier, the organizers of VALORANT Challengers East: Surge 2023 presented a list of participating countries that will play in the Challengers League for Eastern Europe.

The winners of the regional leagues will compete in a single Ascension tournament, whose champion will get a chance to qualify for the VCT. At the same time, the winners of the Ascension series guarantee themselves a slot in the partner league for the next 2 years. Thus, each partner league will be replenished by one team every year. However, teams that have made it through the Ascension series will lose their spots after 2 years and revert back to the Challengers.