Riot Games SEA Announces Challengers Playoffs for VCT 2021: Stage 3

Due to emergent COVID-19 developments in our key tournament markets, the group stage of the VCT Stage 3 – Challengers SEA – Playoffs will be pushed back by one day and will now take place between 13 – 16 August. This change does not affect the Playoffs finals dates which remain from 19 – 22 August, and the overall tournament format and our roster of casters will remain the same.

The health and safety of our teams and crew are our top priority. Given these recent developments with the pandemic, we are opting to hold a more streamlined event that will ensure the safety of all participants while delivering an exciting viewing experience to fans across the region.

VCT STAGE 3 – CHALLENGERS SEA – PLAYOFFS OVERVIEW

16 teams in the VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 3 – Challengers SEA will meet for two intense weekends of competition on 13-16 and 19-22 August as the region’s best teams compete for one of two slots to represent Southeast Asia at the upcoming Masters 3: Berlin in September 2021, where they will play shoulder-to-shoulder with the best teams from North America, EMEA, Brazil, LATAM, Japan and Korea. These teams are also competing for championship points that will count towards a qualification at VALORANT Champions, the final event of the 2021 VCT.

WHICH TEAMS ARE QUALIFIED?

16 teams have proven their mettle against hundreds of participants during the VCT Stage 3 Challengers Qualifiers period that took place throughout the month of July. The following teams have demonstrated strong regional performances and have earned their country slot in the VCT Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs through the qualifier tournaments. Here are the qualified teams –

Teams have been segmented into groups based on regional performance at previous events throughout 2021. Given Vietnamese teams were, unfortunately, unable to participate in the VCT Stage 1 competitions back in March 2021, Riot has allotted 3 seeds to Vietnam for the Stage 3 Playoffs in Pool 3 providing Vietnamese teams with an opportunity to gain circuit points in this playoff round.

HOW DO THE VCT STAGE 3 – CHALLENGERS SEA – PLAYOFFS WORK?

Playoffs will take place over two weekends. In the 1st weekend (13-16 August), teams will be drawn into 4 groups that will play single round-robin, best-of-2 matches where they will be awarded points based on the best-of-2 results. Groups in this first weekend cannot have two teams from the same region. Points in this group stage will be awarded along with the following outcomes:

• A 2-0 result would provide the winner with 3 points
• A 1-1 draw will award 1 point to both teams
• Tiebreakers will be decided by head-to-head scores based on maps and then rounds

The 2 best teams from each group will then move on to the Playoff finals on the 2nd weekend (19-22 August). These teams will be drawn into an 8 team, double-elimination bracket with the added rule that teams from the same group cannot meet each other in the first round. 2 teams will emerge victoriously and will move on to represent Southeast Asia in Masters 3: Berlin in September 2021.

All 16 teams will be competing for a combined prize pool of USD 100,000 and a total of 260 championship points.

HOW TO WATCH & STAY UPDATED

The action starts on Friday, August 13th, with matches commencing from 11:00am GMT+8 during the two tournament weekends. Twitch will continue to be the English broadcast partner for VCT Challengers Stage 3. Full details of the schedule can be found on VALORANTesports.com or on our local partner pages, with broadcasts for the following languages –

• English: PPGL Twitch, VALORANT Twitch
• Tagalog: PPGL Facebook, PPGL YouTube
• Thai: VALORANT TH Facebook, ESL TH Twitch, ESL TH YouTube, ESL TH Facebook
• Bahasa Indonesia: VALORANT ID Facebook, VALORANT Esports ID YouTube (operated by One Up)
• Mandarin: Talon Esports Twitch
• Vietnamese: VALORANT VN Facebook, VALORANT VN YouTube, VALORANT Esports Vietnam Facebook (operated by VNG)