Nerd Street VALORANT Winter Championship December update

Nerd Street’s Winter Championship open tournament series for VALORANT is well underway, with nine online open qualifiers now over. The top teams from across these qualifiers will compete in the VALORANT Winter Championship finals from Feb. 4 to 6 for a prize pool of $75,000.

More details on the Winter Champs series for VALORANT can be found here.

Players on teams that have competed in these open qualifiers have earned points to place among the Nerd Street Winter Champs leaderboard. There are also regional LANs with larger prize pools in which teams can compete and earn points, such as the VALORANT Regional LAN in Philadelphia taking place Jan. 8-9 and the Denver Regional LAN taking place Jan. 22-23.

The top 16 teams on the leaderboard after the 16th open qualifier will move on to the finals. Another eight spots will be up for grabs at the Winter Champs Last Chance Qualifier taking place on Feb. 3.

So far, these are the top 16 teams on the leaderboard.

1. Akrew
2. Knights
3. Next-Gen
4. XSET
5. SoaR
6. Radiance
7. Pioneers
8. Renegades
9. Andbox
10. Version1
11. Soniqs
12. TSM FTX Academy
13. DarkZero
14. Ghost Gaming
15. Evil Geniuses
16. Cosmic Divide

Three teams to watch

Akrew

Akrew have been dominating the Winter Champs circuit of late. The team has won each of the last three online opens they have entered. They beat the Kansas City Pioneers in Open 9, SoaR at Open 8 and the Pittsburgh Knights at Open 6. The majority of Akrew were formerly part of EZ5, a team that disbanded in August and that lost in the Round of 16 at Nerd Street’s Summer Championship finals.

To see more winner’s interviews and online open recaps, check out Nerd Street’s YouTube channel.

XSET

They’re the only team other than Akrew to have won any of the last four online opens. They won Open 7, the only competition they’ve entered so far. XSET have been one of the top teams in the North American VALORANT Champions Tour this year, and with the VCT 2022 season not resuming until late January, we might see this team compete in more Winter Champs qualifiers in order to secure a spot in the finals.

Knights

The Knights won Open 5 and have finished second at Opens 1 and 6. They have not competed in any qualifiers since Open 6, but look for them to enter a few more to solidify their spot in the Winter Champs finals.