VALORANT unveils its competitive scene in LATAM for this 2023

Through a statement, Riot Games presented a large number of details regarding the format and registrations to be part of the competitive scene of this year 2023 for Valorantwith their powers VALORANT Challengers Y VALORANT Game Changers.

With Leviathan Y KRÜ they are in the new VCT Americas Against the best on the continent, the local action continues with the other teams and players in our region. VALORANT Challengers It will continue to be the seedbed for new talent and from here new challengers will emerge who will aspire to reach global competitions.

For Riot, the VALORANT competitive community will continue to grow in 2023, where more teams will be able to compete and develop their skills in LATAM.

VALORANT Challengers Format

For 2023, new partners already known in the region come together to operate VALORANT Challengers: FiReSPORTS Y ACE League will add their experience and innovation together with Riot to organize the North and South Challengers League.

The official names of each of the Leagues are as follows:

• VALORANT Challengers Latam North x ACE
• VALORANT Challengers Latam Sur x FiRe

The Challengers Flow 2023

In both the North and the South, each Challenger League will have 6 teams that will be competing for regional glory and their qualification to the VCT Americas Ascension Tournament (Ascension).

How will these Leagues be formed? Who will participate? In each hemisphere the path begins with the Open Qualifiers, continues with the Closed Qualifiers and leads to the Challengers Leagues.

This will be the competitive flow:

Open Qualifier

Free registration open tournaments for up to 64 teams in each hemisphere. The top four teams from the Open Qualifier will advance to the Closed Qualifier. They will face each other in direct elimination format and all the matches will be Bo1.

Key dates:

• Records from December 21 to January 6.
• The competition starts on January 21.

Closed Qualifier

Closed eight-team tournament. Four teams arrive from the Open Qualifier as indicated in the previous point and four teams are directly invited based on their performance in previous seasons and their evaluation as high impact and potential organizations. The top two teams from the Closed Qualifier will advance to the Challenger League. They will face each other in a double elimination format and all the matches will be Bo3.

Invited teams North:

• Border Monsters
• Skull Cracker
• CHALLENGE
• Team Cruelty

South invited teams:

• VELOX
• Movistar Optix
• EBRO Gaming
• oxen

Key dates:

• The competition starts on January 28 and ends on February 2
• Broadcasts for the lower and upper bracket finals, last two days of competition.

Challengers League

Closed six-team league. Two teams arrive from the Closed Qualifier as indicated in the previous point and four teams are directly invited based on their performance in previous seasons and their evaluation as high impact and potential organizations. They will face each other in Round Robin format, round trip to the best of 3, plus a playoff stage that will be played by the four best teams.

Each of these Leagues will have two competitive seasons. The teams will accumulate points during the year to be the best in their region and qualify for the Promotion to VCT Americas. At the end of the competitive schedule, the lowest ranked team in each league will be required to participate in a Promotion/Relegation process to preserve their spot.

Invited teams Challengers League North:

• FUSION
• E-Xolos LAZER
• Six Karma
• 19esports

Invited teams South Challengers League:

• 9z
• furious
• INFINITY
• All Knights

Key dates:

• Season 1: From February 27 to March 31
• Season 2: From April 25 to June 11
• Broadcasts for all matches.

The Challengers Leagues will have a total prize pool of USD 160,000 for all of Latin America, which will be distributed among the best teams and will include a new prize for the MVP of each season both in the North and in the South.

Game Changers in 2023

The women’s competition continues to grow with the support of thousands of agents in the region. After the good results of the year 2022, Riot Games presented the improvements for this ecosystem in 2023, which include more prizes, more broadcasts and a league format to continue developing the female talent of LATAM.

In order to continue professionalizing the scene and developing talent, they will have:

• New partner to run Game Changers competitions: LVPa partner that will support the investment and development of the scene with its extensive experience in esports competitions.
• New competition format: From Tournaments to League. Both the North and the South will have 6-team Leagues to have a more regular, stable and formal competition. Each league will be broadcast in its entirety, increasing the visibility of Game Changers in our region.
• Teams invited to this new format will be announced soon, and so that everyone has a chance, other teams will arrive through the traditional Open Qualifier and Closed Qualifier as we will detail later. The best team from the Game Changers Leagues in each hemisphere will advance to the LATAM Grand Final, where our international representatives will be defined again.
• More prizes: We increased the loot for the best Game Changers in Latin America by almost 300%, going from USD 24,000 in 2022 to USD 70,000 in 2023. They will be greater incentives for a talent potential that continues to grow.
• More competitions: For the squads that do not reach the Game Changers Leagues, we will have three open tournaments during June, August and September that will allow them to continue training and developing female talent. Soon they will communicate more information about formats and prizes.

In detail, and with key dates for you to prepare your records, we will have:

Open Qualifier

Free registration open tournaments for up to 32 teams in each hemisphere. The top four teams from the Open Qualifier will advance to the Closed Qualifier. They will meet in a double elimination format and all matches will be Bo1.

Key dates:

• Records from January 2.
• The competition starts on January 23 and ends on January 29

Closed Qualifier

Closed eight-team tournament. Four teams arrive from the Open Qualifier as indicated in the previous point and four teams are directly invited based on their performance in previous seasons and their evaluation as high impact and potential organizations.

They will face each other in a double elimination format and all the matches will be Bo3. In each hemisphere, the top two teams from the Closed Qualifier will advance to the corresponding Game Changers League.

Key dates:

• The competition starts on January 30 and ends on February 5
• Broadcasts on February 4 and 5

GAME CHANGERS LEAGUE

regular phase

Closed six-team league. Two teams arrive from the Closed Qualifier as indicated in the previous point and four teams are directly invited based on their performance in previous seasons and their evaluation as high impact and potential organizations.

They will face each other in a round robin Bo3 round robin format. At the end of the year, and after accumulating points in the two seasons that we will have, the two best teams in each hemisphere will advance to the Playoff stage.

Key dates:

• Season 1 from March 5 to April 13
• Season 2 from May 30 to July 27
• Broadcasts on every game day

At the end of the competitive calendar, the lowest ranked team in each League must participate in a Promotion/Relegation process to preserve their spot.

Last Chance Qualifier

After the two seasons and also in each hemisphere, the teams that rank 3rd to 5th yearly will advance to their respective Last Chance Qualifier, either North or South.

The squads will compete in a Round Robin format, one way, with Bo3 series. The two best teams will advance to the Playoffs of each hemisphere, joining those classified from the Regular Phase.

Key dates:

• It will be played from August 29 to 31.
• Broadcasts on every game day

Playoffs

In both the North and the South, two teams from the Regular Phase and two teams from the Last Chance Qualifier meet to define the champion of each hemisphere.

They will face each other in a double elimination format with series to the Bo5 and a final between the best teams. The champion will advance to the LATAM Grand Final.

Key dates:

• It will be played from September 5 to 21
• Broadcasts on every game day

Latam Grand Final

The best team from the North and the best team from the South meet in a face-to-face series at the Bo5 for the crown of the region and the presentation in the World Championship.