All news: Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2025

The VCT abbreviation first appeared in early 2021, but Riot’s active promotion of VALORANT began in 2020. Riot’s approach meant that VALORANT would soon enter the light of competitive gaming and eSports, and therefore the company resorted to creating it.

VCT History: First Year of the VALORANT Main Tournament Series

Prior to the transition to a steely ecosystem, VCT took place in 2021, and prior to that, VALORANT esports was represented by the First Strike tournament series. They were organized by third-party contractors, which did not fit well with the concept of Riot and their approach to hosting esports events in their games.

A smooth transition to the VALORANT Champions Tour took place in 2021. Distinctive characteristic of Riot's favorite distribution by region and the scale of the tournament.

13 large regions and several smaller ones were stuffed into the VCT ecosystem. The main countries for battles within the VALORANT Champions Tour are: CIS, Turkey, Western Europe, South Korea, Japan, Brazil, Latin America, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. Over time, the distribution of teams by region was formatted. So it was with clubs from the CIS, Turkey and Western Europe, united in one region - EMEA.

Later, Riot announced the Masters series championships, which became VALORANT Majors. Also, after a while, full-fledged tournaments of the World Championship status and the main competitions of the VCT structure - VALORANT Champions were presented, the last of which took place in 2022 in Istanbul.

In its debut year, the VCT system received the following structure:

1. Three Regional Challengers
2. Regional Masters for the CIS, Europe, Turkey, North and South America, Brazil, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea
3. Three regional Challengers with final qualifiers in the second split
4. Masters in Reykjavik
5. Three regional Challengers with a combined playoff structure in the third split
6. Masters in Berlin
7. Regional Last Chance Qualifier for EMEA, Southeast Asia, Americas
8. VALORANT Champions 2021

The next year, the system did not expect big changes, but a few key improvements happened. In particular, Riot began to spread and popularize the competitive VALORANT by enriching the TIER-2 scene.

VCT in 2022

In 2022, Riot Games introduced the VRL series tournaments or the VALORANT Regional League. They were held in countries outside the VCT structure such as France, Spain and others.

A feature of VRL was the possibility of professional growth of their participants. The most successful representatives of the "small tournaments" had a chance to break into the VCT.

The structure of the VALORANT Champions Tour in 2022 looked like this:

1. Regional Challengers
2. Masters in Reykjavik
3. Regional Challengers
4. Masters in Copenhagen
5. Regional Last Chance Qualifier for EMEA, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Americas
6. VALORANT Champions 2022

After testing the waters in the second year of the series, Riot resorted to a solution to radically overhaul the VCT ecosystem. The American company planned to introduce an analogue of franchised regional leagues from League of Legends into VALORANT.

VCT transition to franchise format in 2023

After VALORANT Champions 2022, which took place in Istanbul, Riot announced radical changes to the VCT structure. Now the series is turning into a full-fledged franchise with all the consequences, but not without traditional Riot features.

Similar to leagues in LoL, teams that become partners of VCT 2023 will receive guaranteed payouts from the income of each particular league. If Riot follows in the footsteps of League of Legends, then the more successful the club is in terms of media, the higher its percentage of VCT revenue.

There will be three title leagues in VCT 2023: European, American and Asian. Each league will include 10 teams.

• VCT 2023 Partners in Europe: NaVi, Team Vitality, Karmine Corp, FUT Esports, BBL Esports, Fnatic, Team Liquid, KOI, Giants Gaming Team Heretics
• VCT 2023 partners in America: 100 Thieves, Sentinels, Cloud9, NRG Esports, Evil Geniuses, FURIA, LOUD, MIBR, Leviatan Esports, KRU Esports.
• VCT 2023 Asia Partners: Gen.G Esports, DRX, ZETA Division, DetonatioN FocusMe, Team Secret, Rex Regum Qeon, Paper Rex, Talon Esports, Global Esports

The debut tournament at VCT 2023 will be the championship in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where Riot will convene all partners of the VALORANT Champions Tour 2023. An event that will serve as a promotion for the season, and the winner will be offered a ticket to the Major - the first Masters 2023.

Next, the teams will have a long league for 8 weeks with the identification of the best and their subsequent transfer to the Masters. The team selection policy for Champions 2023 will remain unchanged.

Another innovation of VCT with the transition to a franchised league will be the tournaments of the Ascension series. Teams from regional Challengers will play at the Ancesion series tournaments, which will give clubs outside the VCT an opportunity to express themselves and qualify for partner status in the future.

Most successful VCT teams of all time in each region

Like any discipline and tournament series, VALORANT has its underdogs and kings. Due to the regional diversity in VALORANT, it is difficult to single out individual clubs, but there are several teams.

America's Best VALORANT Team

One of the leading teams in competitive VALORANT and VCT is and has been the Sentinels. During their years in North America, the team has earned over $560,000, making them the most successful club in VALORANT history (as of December 2022).

Europe's Best VALORANT Team

In Europe, the Acends rule the roost, not far from the Sentinels in terms of the amount of prize money. The club received the lion's share of the ~$500,000 earned by winning the first World Championship - VALORANT Champions 2021.

Asia's Best VALORANT Team

In the Asian region, Paper Rex remains the best team at the end of 2022. Since joining the discipline and starting to play under the VCT structure in 2020, the team has managed to earn over $380,000. A significant share of the prize money falls on the TOP-4 within the VCT: Stage 1 Masters - Reykjavik and 2nd place at the Masters in Copenhagen.

TOP 10 Richest VALORANT Teams