2023 will bring global changes to VALORANT. RIOT Games is going to refresh the esports discipline drastically with the help of its transformation.
Considering the success of its main creature, League of Legends, the creators of VALORANT have decided to use the same mechanism of building the competitive ecosystem in the shooter. In short, VALORANT is a franchise game now, and what it means – read in our material.
Moving to the franchise model – VCT 2023
In 2022, Riot Games announced the large-scale changes to the VALORANT tournament schedule. The competitive shooter rebuilds on franchise rails.
Instead of the vast number of regions with their events, we will have three titled partnership leagues: the European one, the Asian one, and the American one. Teams will be competing in every league, according to their internal cycle, to pretend for slots in the international VALORANT tournaments in the end.
The list of partners of VCT 2023
| The European league VCT 2023 | Team Vitality, Karmine Corp, FUT Esports, BBL Esports, Natus Vincere, Fnatic, Team Liquid, KOI, Team Heretics, and Giants Gaming |
| The Asian league VCT 2023 | ZETA DIVISION, T1, Gen.G Esports, DRX, DetonatioN Gaming, Team Secret, Rex Regum Qeon, Paper Rex, Talon Esports, and Global Esports |
| The American league VCT 2023 | Sentinels, 100 Thieves, Cloud9, NRG Esports, Evil Geniuses, FURIA, LOUD, MIBR, Leviatán Esports, and KRÜ Esports |
Despite the franchise league VCT being built by the League of Legends principles, there are some serious differences in it. For example, this is not a closed club for the elites.
The teams approved by Riot Games will become the league partners in the first year. The so-called contract is signed for two years, after which teams will go to the regional level and have to earn a slot among the best ones.
Besides, the number of participants in the partnership leagues will not be constant. Generally, VCT is going to attract 42 teams from all over the world, 14 clubs per league.
Life beyond VCT – building regional leagues in VALORANT in 2023
Besides the franchise VCT, the ecosystem of the third-party VALORANT tournaments will be developing in 2023. All of this will be realized under the tag Challengers.
Just like “the elder brother”, matches will be held in regional leagues in three regions. However, they will not be equal: America will have 4 subleagues, Europe will get 7 subleagues, and Asia will have 10 of them.
The regional VALORANT leagues in America in 2023:
- North America
- Brazil
- North Latin America
- South Latin America
The regional VALORANT leagues in Europe in 2023:
- North Europe
- South Europe (Spain, Italy, and Portugal)
- France and Benelux
- Germany, Australia, and Switzerland
- Turkey
- Eastern Europe
- Middle East
The regional VALORANT leagues in Asia in 2023:
- South Asia
- Thailand
- Vietnam
- Malaysia and Singapore
- Japan
- South Korea
- Taiwan and Hong Kong
- The Philippines
- Indonesia
- Oceania
Teams will be playing for material prizes in every league. The winners of each subleague will play against each other to join the VCT partners in a brand-new event next year. It will be called Ascension.
The new competitive year in VALORANT will be over with a familiar event – the Champions tournament. Riot will reveal the detailed rules of the World Championship in the refreshed competitive system closer to the start of the event, however, it is already known what participants of the VALORANT esports community will see after the Champions 2023.
The mid-season will begin right after the announcement of the strongest team in 2023. During this period, the participants of VCT 2023 and regional leagues will be playing at third-party VALORANT tournaments, making replacements and roster rotations, and preparing for the start of the new competitive year.
Will the changes be useful?
The new competitive year creates new massive changes to the professional scene. Moreover, there will be both positive and negative consequences from these changes.
The positive consequences include the availability and media popularity of the game, as well as the rise of VALORANT Accounts being traded and sold online. There will be more VALORANT tournaments, which will be different in terms of scale: VCT 2023 matches will attract fans of the biggest clubs in the discipline and local tournaments will support local teams.
The media coverage of VALORANT will grow increasingly. Every league, whether it is a partnership VCT or a local league, will have dozens of matches, which will be broadcasted at a different time to avoid overlapping one championship with another.
However, there is always a spoon of tar in a barrel of honey. Big clubs that have not received invitations to the partnership league VCT 2023 might leave the competitive VALORANT scene forever, having no desire “to play for a prospect” and pass all qualifying circles to return to VCT in two years in theory.