Riot Games unveils global esports competition for Valorant

Riot Games has unveiled the Champions Tour. This is a global esports competition for the shooter Valorant. This competition is an attempt by Riot to take the professional e-sports ecosystem within Valorant to a higher level.

The season starts at the end of January next year, with the Champions Tour competition divided into three levels: Challengers, Masters and Champions. Challengers are all about regional competitions organized by Riot or other companies. The Masters events are larger and only take place three times a year, in which the best teams from the different regions can participate. Champions is the highest attainable, a two-week tournament in which the 16 best teams in the world will compete against each other.

In the Challengers and Masters, points can be earned to enforce qualification for the Champions. For the Challengers, which run for six weeks and consist of three tournaments, there are open qualifications. The best teams can qualify for the Masters, which will be limited to regional affairs throughout the covid-19 pandemic, but Riot intends to upgrade to international LAN sessions as soon as the global health situation permits.