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VALORANT Challengers 2023 begin

The break is over for esports organizations around the world. However, the VALORANT Championship Tour is about to start,... Eduardo | 8. January 2023

The break is over for esports organizations around the world. However, the VALORANT Championship Tour is about to start, and Riot Games announced a new format for the events to be played at the beginning of the year.

The curtain goes up on the 2023 VCT season and will kick off with VALORANT Challengers in the different regions. The International Split starts in February in São Paulo, Brazil.

VALORANT Challengers 2023 begin

January 9 will mark the start of the VALORANT Challengers league in the NA region, one of more than 20 leagues worldwide, with a series of exciting Open Qualifiers.

The largest area of the Challengers Circuit will have 12 teams participating in the 2023 season, which will join the best squads from North America, Brazil, and LATAM in the Americas Ascension tournament. This is to finally jump to VALORANT’s top-level events, i.e., the VCT.

VCT DomesticLeague PromotionPath v3

Credits: Riot Games

Everything you need to know about the Valorant Challengers League 2023

The Challenger League starts on January 9, 2023. Two Open Qualifiers will be played over five days. The first is from January 9-13, and the second is from January 17-22.

From this point on, it will be determined which teams to join among some of VALORANT’s top NA stars for the 2023 season.

VALORANT esports posted on its blog that:

“More than 250 teams will navigate through five days of intense bracket play to secure one of the six remaining coveted Challengers team slots and a chance to join the Americas Ascension Tournament later this year.”

 

VCT DomesticLeague Ecosystem Pyramid

Credits: Riot Games

Format

As mentioned, the VALORANT Challengers Open Qualifiers will have two separate tournaments.

The top four teams from Open Qualifiers 1 and the top two from Open Qualifiers 2 will be invited to compete in the 2023 season.

The tournaments will start with a best-of-three single-elimination format. Then, in the next tournament phase, we will have the matches played in a double-elimination form.

It should be noted that this pair of tournaments will be played with VALORANT patch 5.12, i.e., the same one used at the Champions 2022 in Istanbul. In addition, the first two weeks of the Challenger League will also be played with this old patch.

Challengers League Schedule

Open Qualifiers 1: January 9-13

  • January 9 – Single Elimination – BO3
  • January 10 – 6:00 pm EST
  • January 11 – 6:00 pm EST
  • January 12 – 6:00 pm EST, Winners qualify for Challengers.
  • January 13 – 6:00 pm EST, Winners qualify for the Challengers.

Open Qualifiers 2: January 17-22

  • January 17 – Single Elimination – BO3
  • January 18 – 6:00 pm EST
  • January 19 – 6:00 pm EST
  • January 20 – 6:00 pm EST
  • January 21 – 8:15 pm EST, Winners qualify for Challengers.
  • January 22 – 6:00 pm EST, Winners qualify for Challengers.

Header: VCT Photos | Flickr