VALORANT Masters is heading to Iceland

March 1, 2021

by Jessica Scharnagle

On Monday, Riot Games announced that the VALORANT Champions Tour Masters Stage 2 tournament will be held in Reykjavík, Iceland.

The top 10 teams from across all regions will compete in a LAN environment. This is the first VALORANT competition to be held over LAN. The venue is called Laugardalshöll, and teams will quarantine upon arrival in order to ensure the safety and health of all participants and staff.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no live audience, however, Riot has said in the past that they hope to be able to return to events with live audiences later in the year.

When is Masters Stage 2?

Masters Stage 2 takes place May 24-30. There will be two teams from each of the following regions: Brazil; Europe, CIS and Turkey region; and North America. One team will qualify from each of these regions: Japan, South Korea, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

This tournament is the second of three Masters tournaments set to be held this year as part of the VALORANT Champions Tour. Teams qualify by winning their regional Challengers tournaments. Teams who participate in Masters tournaments earn points in order to qualify for VALORANT Champions, which takes place near the end of the year.

More information about the point distribution for Masters 1 and 2 will be released in the coming weeks.

When will fans be able to attend VALORANT tournaments in-person?

Having a tournament of this scale take place over LAN is a huge step forward for the esports community. Lately, esports have taken an all-online approach to holding events because of the health and safety of teams and staff. It is possible that Riot will use the event as a learning experience in order to return to events that host an audience.

Riot has not given a date for when this is going to be possible, but staff have indicated a deep desire to return to in-person events as soon as they are able.

Lead image credit: Riot Games