Riot Games Reveals Plans for Valorant Champions Tour in 2025

iot Games details Valorant Champions Tour format and locations in 2025. Image Credit: Riot Games

This week Riot Games gave a preview of things to come for Valorant esports, including revealing what cities would host major Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) events in 2025 and 2026.

Following Champions, Challenger teams from around the world will gather together to compete in Ascension in their respective regions, vying for an official spot in the international leagues. Those sports in the international leagues will expand from the current 11 to 12 teams in 2025, and at the end of the season the winning teams that moved from Ascension (tier-2) to the international leagues (tier-1) will defend to keep it at the end of the season (this was detailed earlier this year by Riot).

Riot also revealed that starting next year, partner teams will be able to run Academy teams in Challengers, and though these teams will not be able to take part in Ascension it will give organizations a way to develop talent.

The offseason returns in 2025 as well, with a slate of tournaments comprising show matches, open bracket events, influencer tournaments, and invitationals operated by third parties. Some of those special one-off competitions include RedBull Home Ground, Ludwig x Tarik, and Spike Nations, among others.

In November—as was previously announced this week—Riot will run the Game Changers Championship at the Riot Games Arena in Berlin, crowning the best GC team in the world. The Game Changers Championship will expand from eight (8) to 10 teams.

Looking ahead to 2025, Riot said it will bring its global events to three locations. The first Masters of the year in February 2025 heads to Southeast Asia. or more specifically Bangkok, Thailand. In June Toronto, Ontario, Canada, will host the second Masters, and VCT Champions will close out the season in Paris, France.

The 2025 season will now run from January to October, and every competition will award teams with “Championship Points” that will help them earn their way into the year-end championship—details on this point system are to be announced at a later date.

Riot also noted that it will host the kickoff tournament in January, featuring a new format: Twelve (12) teams will compete in a straight double-elimination bracket, with the top two (2) teams qualifying for Masters Bangkok. From there, Stage 1 will qualify the top three (3) teams from each international league to Masters Toronto. Stage 2 (which Riot says “will no longer carry over records from Stage 1”) will qualify teams for the final playoffs of the season. Playoffs will expand from six (6) to eight (8) teams. The top teams from the Stage 2 Playoffs and the top teams with the most Championship Points will qualify for Champions Paris.

Finally, Riot announced that it plans to bring VCT Champions to China in 2026, and to the Americas in 2027, though specific dates and cities were not revealed as of this writing.

Interestingly enough, there appears to be a space in the competitive calendar that falls in line with the timing of the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2025. You may recall that The Esports Advocate reported in June that the only reason Valorant wasn’t part of the EWC in 2024 was due to scheduling conflicts. Riot has said that it is in talks with organizers of the event about the inclusion of Valorant in 2025. When asked about the inclusion of its games in the Saudi government’s other big esports event in 2025 – the Esports Olympic Games – Riot declined to comment.

More details on Riot’s plans for VCT in 2025 can be found in the following video: