Everything you need to know about the VALORANT Elite Showdown
by Jessica Scharnagle
VALORANT esports is still going strong despite only one more VALORANT Champions Tour event this year. This past weekend was the open qualifier for the Elite Showdown tournament, which is a North American VALORANT tournament that aims to showcase more top-tier talent.
The main event of the VALORANT Elite Showdown will be a four-day online tournament consisting of 64 teams that takes place this weekend starting Thursday. The field of 64 will consist of 32 teams that were directly invited and another 32 that made it through the open qualifier.
Community Gaming has partnered with Riot Games to produce a high-profile event for North American teams that aims to bring fresh faces to the forefront of the Tier 2 VALORANT scene.
VALORANT Elite Showdown format
The main event format will be GSL-style groups, which will then funnel into a single-elimination bracket. The team that wins the final will take home $10,000.
As seen with previous tournaments with open qualifiers such as those for the VCT Challengers events, the open qualifier part of the event adds an element of the unknown into the tournament. Rise recently outperformed many more well-known and favored teams to reach the NA Last Chance Qualifier final,
Below is a list of the 32 invited teams competing this weekend.
- TSM Academy
- Ghost Gaming
- BBG Academy
- Renegades
- Knights Academy
- Cloud9 White
- Teal Seam
- Shopify Rebellion
- Soar Gaming
- Cosmic Divide
- Knights
- Andbox
- CLG Red
- Immortals
- Dignitas
- VersionX
- Gen.G
- TSM
- Akrew
- Built By Gamers
- Kansas City Pioneers
- Cloud9 Academy
- 24Haven Val
- NRG
- Evil Geniuses
- T1 Academy
- Complexity
- DarkZero Esports
- The Mafia
- Version1
- Soniqs
- Flickbaiters
Teams to watch
Despite this being a Tier 2 tournament, there are some big names to watch out for. Most notably, Version1 and Gen.G recently played in the NA VCT Last Chance Qualifier and will be two of the top teams to watch at this tournament.
Other teams who have doen well in previous VCT tournaments include Andbox, Immortals, NRG, TSM, Built By Gamers and Kansas City Pioneers.
Some female teams are also expected to do well in this tournament, most notably Cloud9 White, who won all three of the NA VCT Game Changers tournaments this year. They have yet to be seriously challenged by other female teams, but some are starting to catch up, especially CLG Red, who are still looking to settle on a consistent roster, and Shopify Rebellion, who took a map off of C9 White in the Game Changers 3 final.
How to watch the VALORANT Elite Showdown
The main event of the showdown runs from Nov. 11-14 and will be broadcast on Riot’s main VALORANT Twitch channel.
A lot of familiar VALORANT talent will cast and provide commentary for the tournament, including Daniel “ddk” Kapadia, Christy “Ender” Frierson, Alex “Vansilli” Nguyen, Tanner Metro and Dustin “dusT” Mouret.
The VALORANT Elite Showdown should be a great tournament for those looking for fresh faces in the scene. Without some of the titans in the scene, there is a greater possibility that an unsigned team can reach the playoff bracket and make a name for themselves.
Lead image credit: Riot Games
