VCT 2023: Riot Games reveals schedule, location details

Updated March 4

Riot Games has revealed the schedule and location details about the VALORANT Champions Tour 2023 season. The schedule will follow a similar timeline as 2022 with the season starting early in the year and ending late in the summer with VALORANT Champions. However, with 30 teams divided into three 10-team international leagues, the format will change and the bulk of the competition will happen in person.

Competition in the international leagues will take place on LAN in the following three locations:

• Los Angeles - Americas league
• Berlin - Europe, Middle East and Africa league
• Seoul - Asia-Pacific league

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Before competition kicks off in these regions in March, there will be a preseason tournament in February that will take place in Sao Paolo, Brazil, called LOCK//IN and involve all 30 teams. This competition will last three weeks, and the winning team will award their league an extra slot at the first Masters tournament of the year.

Competition in each league will last eight weeks, and a champion for each region will be crowned in May. A Masters tournament will take place in June in Tokyo, Japan, featuring the top three teams from each league plus one more team from the region that wins LOCK//IN.

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The top performing teams throughout the season will qualify for Champions, which will take place in Los Angeles from August 6 to 26. Before then, teams will get another shot to qualify via Last Chance Qualifiers taking place in July. Each league will have a chance to send one more team to Champions via these LCQs.

Although the VCT 2023 season will feature only one split of regional competition in each league, subsequent seasons will feature two splits. The reason there will be only one split in 2023 is to allow teams more time to settle into their regional hubs of Los Angeles, Berlin and Seoul. The preseason tournament in Sao Paolo is planned to be a one-time occurrence next year due to the lack of a second split.

Image credit: Riot Games

A Tier 2 scene of regional competition below each international league will take place throughout the year too. In August, Riot revealed details on these new Challengers leagues and the Ascension tournament that will give the best Tier 2 teams a chance to compete in the international leagues in subsequent years.

The 30 teams that will be competing in the international leagues in 2023 were announced by Riot in September.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games