A beginner's guide to Valorant Champions

Valorant has emerged as one of the biggest multiplayer games in the last year and a half.

The game is the only real rival to fellow FPS game CS:GO and is already considered by many to be the best FPS in the world right now. Having won Esports Game of the Year at the 2021 Esports Awards further cemented the game that, despite still being new, has already built a great competitive scene.

Throughout the year, the best teams in the world battled each other in various tournaments. However, the main goal for any Valorant team is to qualify for the biggest tournament: the Valorant Champions, which will take place in Berlin this year.

How the teams qualify for the tournament

Image source: Riot Games

Valorant Champions will take place in Berlin, just like the last international event: Masters Berlin. The tournament will start on the 1st of December and end on the 12th of the same month.

Valorant Champion is composed of 16 teams from all around the globe. Like the League of Legends World Championship, each team represents a region. Just like their MOBA counterpart, some regions can take more teams to the event than others. This is due to the teams' success from a specific region in that year's previous Masters events.

To qualify for the tournament, teams from their respective regions play the Valorant Champions Tour: a series of events that give points to the teams based on their placement in the tournaments.

There are 3 regional VCT tournaments.

• Masters 1

• Challengers Finals 2, which gives the winner and the runner-up of the main regions a spot in the first-ever international Valorant tournament, Masters Reykjavík.

• Challengers Playoffs 3 that qualifies teams to another international event, Masters Berlin. 

In the international events (both Master's Reykjavík and Berlin), teams also win VCT points. The winners of both Masters get a direct invite to Valorant Champions, with the winner from Masters Berlin allowing their region to take one more team.

The top 2 teams of the major regions, North America, Brazil, and South East Asia, qualify directly into champions. In EMEA, the top 3 teams qualified directly in this case. However, teams still have one last chance to qualify for the Champions.

The Last Chance Qualifier is a tournament in North America, EMEA, South Asia, and the Asia Pacific and Central. The top 10 teams from each region (according to the VCT points standings and not including those already qualified) will face off against each other for a ticket to Valorant Champions.

The teams that will represent their region

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North America will take three teams to the event, with their first seed being Sentinels. The team has dominated the domestic competition all year and won the first-ever international event, Masters Reykjavík, without dropping a map.

The second from North America is Envy. This team is also seen as one of the best globally and a solid contender to win Champions. After their fantastic performance at Master Berlin, where they finished second, the team is coming to the event ready to achieve similar success.

Cloud9 Blue is the last of the North American teams and was the one that qualified through the Last Chance Qualifier. The team showed an incredible level in the tournament and is now ready to continue their good form at Valorant Champions.

EMEA will be the region to take more teams to Valorant Champions. Four teams in total will represent the region's pride and honor on the international stage. Gambit is the first seed of the region and is considered by many the best team in the world. The team won the last Masters event and is coming into the tournament as the favorites.

However, the other teams from the region have also shown a great level during the past couple of months. Gambit will likely have a fight on their hands. 

Team Liquid is one of those teams. They are the fourth seed from EMEA, having qualified for the tournament through the LCQ. Team Liquid is seen as the second-best team in the region and a top-five team in the world.

Another team that Gambit will need to look out for is Acend. The European team has improved a lot in the past couple of months, and most casters and analysts predict the team to have a good tournament run.

The fourth team is Fnatic. The esports giants are seen by many as the worst team from the region to qualify, and most people don't expect much from them. Let's see if they can prove them wrong.

From South Korea, we have Vision Strikers or, as some called them, the Korean Superteam. The team is right now the best Asian team and one of the best in the world.

SEA will also take three teams to the tournament, two qualified directly (X10 CRIT and Team Secret), while FULL SENSE won the APAC LCQ. The three teams are considered heavy underdogs in the tournament.

Brazil will also have two representatives in the tournament. Despite the region producing great individual players with a lot of firepower, they are not seen as top contenders. The teams that will represent Brazil are first seed Vivo Keyd's, second seed Team Vikings, and Furia, who qualified through the LATAM LCQ.

As for Japan, Crazy Raccoon will once again carry the region flag on the international stage.

The Format 

Image source: Riot Games

The tournament will have a groups stage double-elimination bracket, composed of four groups, each with four teams. If a team loses the first match of the group stage, they drop to the lower bracket, where they will have to win two do-or-die series to advance to the playoffs.

The top two teams from each group will advance to the playoffs. However, to the disappointment of many fans, the playoffs will be a single-elimination bracket, which means once you lose, you are out. Riot could have done a double-elimination bracket just like they did for the group stage, but they chose not to. "Why?" is the question in the minds of most people.

The playoffs are where the best 8 teams of the world will battle each other to reach eternal glory by claiming the Champions trophy. The series will be all best-of-three except for the Grand Final, which will be a best-of-five.

How to watch Valorant Champions

Image source: Riot Games

The best way to watch a tournament of this magnitude and historical importance for the game would be in person. Unfortunately, the tournament won't have a crowd despite being on LAN.

However, there are still plenty of fun ways you can watch the tournament. In esports cafes and theaters is where you will have the closest experience to being there in person. You can also watch the event through Riot Games' official English stream on various streaming platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Trovo, and more.

Or, if you prefer to watch the broadcast in your native language, each region also has its official broadcast.

If you want a more chill and "casual" broadcast feeling, or a more in-depth and professional way to look at the game, Riot Games is allowing many content creators to co-stream the tournament. 

This will be the first-ever Valorant Champions. We're sure it will give the fans many memorable moments, plays, exciting matches, and a roller coaster of emotions. 

Want to become a Valorant champion yourself someday? Join G-Loot and start competing!