Riot Games announced today the official tournament details for LOCK//IN, the largest event in the history of the VALORANT Champions Tour. From February 13th to March 4th, 32 of the best teams in the world will battle it out at the Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo for three weeks of intense competition.
VCT LOCK/IN Sao Paulo: Teams
LOCK//IN will see every team from the Americas, Pacific, EMEA leagues as well as two invited representatives from China.
| AMERICAS Teams | PACIFIC Teams | EMEA Teams | Invited Teams from China |
| 100 Thieves | DetonatioN FocusMe | BBL Esports | EDG |
| Cloud9 | DRX | Fnatic | FPX |
| Evil Geniuses | Gen.G | FUT Esports | |
| FURIA | Global Esports | Giants | |
| Kru Esports | Paper Rex | Karmine Corp | |
| Leviatán | Rex Regum Qeon | KOI | |
| LOUD | T1 | NAVI | |
| MiBR | Talon Esports | Team Heretics | |
| NRG | Team Secret | Team Liquid | |
| Sentinels | ZETA Division | Team Vitality |
VCT LOCK/IN Sao Paulo: Format
To accommodate the largest number of teams Riot Games has hosted at a single event, the tournament will use a single elimination format. Subsequent events will return to a double elimination format.
To maximize the number of inter-regional matches at LOCK//IN, a random draw process was implemented that paired teams from different regions in the first round, while also maximizing the possibility of inter-regional matches for the second round.
First, regions were paired into 16 first round match-ups, with each match-up consisting of two team slots.
- EMEA vs PACIFIC – 5 match-ups
- AMERICAS vs PACIFIC – 5 match-ups
- AMERICAS vs EMEA – 4 match-ups
- CHINA vs AMERICAS – 1 match-up
- CHINA vs EMEA – 1 match-up
Each team slot was assigned a random number from 1-10 to account for the 32 teams in attendance. (Americas 1-10, EMEA 1-10, PACIFIC 1-10, China 1-2). In line with our goal to maximize geographically diverse competition, teams from China were paired with team slots from the AMERICAS and EMEA.
Second, the 16 match-ups were distributed across two sides of the single elimination bracket to maximize inter-regional matches for the first two rounds. For this event, the two sides of the bracket will be referenced as Alpha & Omega:
| Alpha Matches | Omega Matches |
| AMERICAS vs PACIFIC – 3 | AMERICAS vs PACIFIC – 2 |
| EMEA vs PACIFIC – 2 | EMEA vs PACIFIC – 3 |
| EMEA vs AMERICAS – 2 | EMEA vs AMERICAS – 2 |
| CHINA vs EMEA -1 | CHINA vs AMERICAS – 1 |
Finally, a random draw assigned each of the 32 teams a number from 1-10 that corresponded to their region and an already placed team slot, giving us our final bracket.
VCT LOCK/IN Sao Paulo: Schedule
LOCK//IN will consist of three stages of competition:
- Alpha Matches – February 13 -19
- Alpha Matches will play out until two teams remain.
- Each match will be a Best-of-Three.
- Omega Matches – February 22 – 27
- Omega Matches will play out until two teams remain.
- Each match will be a Best-of-Three.
- Finals Stage
- The remaining four teams play through the Semifinals and Finals until a champion is crowned.
- Matches in this stage will be Best-of-Five.
- Monday Feb 13 – Alpha Matches
- Tuesday Feb 14 – Alpha Matches
- Wednesday Feb 15 – Alpha Matches
- Thursday Feb 16 – Dark Day
- Friday Feb 17- Alpha Matches
- Saturday Feb 18 – Alpha Matches
- Sunday Feb 19 – Alpha Matches
- Monday Feb 20 – Dark Day
- Tuesday Feb 21 – Dark Day
- Wednesday Feb 22 – Omega Matches
- Thursday Feb 23 – Omega Matches
- Friday Feb 24 – Omega Matches
- Saturday Feb 25 – Omega Matches
- Sunday Feb 26- Omega Matches
- Monday Feb 27- Omega Matches
- Tuesday Feb 28 – Dark Day
- Wednesday Mar 1 – Dark Day
- Thursday Mar 2 – Semifinals
- Friday Mar 3 – Semifinals
- Saturday Mar 4 – Finals
