North American fans may finally experience the International LAN experience with the VALORANT Champions Tour after VCT Champions closes out on Los Angeles.
BLIX.GG‘s Alejandro Gomis reportedly spoke with Riot Games about holding the 2023 VCT Champions in Los Angeles later in August.
This is a system analogous to that which Riot has implemented for League of Legends, in which a predetermined number of teams from each league attempt to advance to the annual world finals.
The new leagues will also provide more opportunity for teams to compete against international competition throughout the regular season, as opposed to the present setup in which many teams only compete against opponents from outside their region at events like Masters and Champions.
New for the VCT 2023 season are three international leagues in which to compete, but only for select partner teams.
The first VCT LAN event took place in Reykjavik, Iceland, a very secluded location chosen so that players may feel safe while yet enjoying the fairness and transparency of a LAN event. This was indeed followed by some gruesome COVID-19 protocols taking place in effect.
As restrictions on COVID have now relaxed, the VCT has successfully expanded to Berlin and Istanbul, where it has already organized two major international competitions. While fans in Europe will be disappointed that the VCT Championships won’t be back in 2023, they will have a great event to look forward to in the United States later this summer.
Despite local constraints that affected match timings and large travel distances for certain teams, Berlin, Istanbul, and Reykjavik have been great VCT locations.
There has been no official word from the developers and the organizers so far but Riot Games is no stranger to North America and Los Angeles as they have previously partnered up with the region for the League Of Legends Championship Series (LCS).
If the VCT is considering having the championship tournament in the United States this year, Los Angeles would make a great choice as the site. A number of other esports’ flagship events as mentioned above have also been hosted in and around LA, including the Overwatch League’s grand finals in Anaheim back in November.
In preparation for the next 2023 season, Riot Games has released additional information on the forthcoming competitive schedule, including the Masters, Champions, Last Chance Qualifiers, and Challenger Circuits.
The first split will take place from March until May and will consist of a total of eight weeks of play during the regular season. At the conclusion of this time period, champions will be crowned in each worldwide league, and the top teams from each division will move on to the first Masters event of 2023.
Though there will be two international league splits beginning with the 2024 season, only one will exist in 2023. However, the international event in February is supplementing that single split by giving teams more time to prepare in their respective hub cities.
Notable locations all throughout the United States serve as regular stops for international esports tournaments, so you’re not limited to just these two options.
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