After a legendary opening year, in 2022, EMEA’s VALORANT esports is becoming a multi-layered ecosystem with a series of important and exciting developments. Amateur and ready-to-show professional players will compete in the newly created VALORANT Regional Leagues and VALORANT Regional Circuits. The Game Changers program will give women the opportunity to stand out and feature truly distinguished VALORANT stars on the VALORANT Champions Tour.
The VALORANT Champions Tour has become the pinnacle of FPS esports at EMEA, and the 2021 season has seen incredible and memorable moments for both teams and the community. In 2022, the structure of the EMEA VCT will be changed to suit the entire region. All local regions under the broad EMEA umbrella will be given the opportunity to grow and achieve a healthy level of competition.
The four EMEA teams in VALORANT Champions 2021 will be invited to stage I of VCT in 2022. The remaining eight teams will find their owners with two different region-specific qualifiers. Four teams were allocated for Europe, two for Turkey and two for cis. Teams at MENA will be able to compete in these qualifiers.
Teams will participate in Stage II through the VCT promotion tournament. The winners of eight VRL’s in Stage I will compete for the remaining two places with the bottom two VCT teams. More information about the general VCT format will be shared in early 2022.
VALORANT Regional Leagues (VRLs)
VRLs will be the pinnacle of regional VALORANT esports. It has a national atmosphere but will present a very competitive combat environment to developing talent in the region.
Eight new EMEA VRLs will be held in 2022:
• Spain (players in Portugal and Italy will also be able to participate in this league)
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• France (players in Benelux will also be able to participate in this league)
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• United Kingdom, Ireland and Nordic Countries
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• Poland and Eastern Europe (players in Israel will also be able to participate in this league)
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• CIS
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• MENA
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• Turkey
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• DACH
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These leagues will be organized by organizers with which Riot Games cooperates. The season will consist of Phase 2. A certain number of the teams that will take part in the tournament will be determined by VRL preliminaries at least once a season. At the end of Stage 1, VRL winners will be eligible to compete in the VCT Promotion Tournament. In Phase 2, VRL winners will compete for a place in the VRL EMEA final.
[Note: The number of VRL qualifiers and the number of quotas allocated to teams may vary depending on the Aforementioned VCT promotion tournament.]
In addition to providing satisfying competitive experiences to high-skill players, the new VRL tournaments will offer them a rare opportunity to develop their skills within a structural ecosystem that provides them with a healthy and high level of competition.
The 2022 VRL season will begin with qualifying on January 24, with the first split starting in the week of February 14th.
In 2022, there will be three exciting VCT Game Changers EMEA tournaments. The first will start in January, and the other two will start in May and September, respectively. Teams that have succeeded in these events will qualify for the Global Game Changers tournament, scheduled for October.
In addition, the Game Changers EMEA Academy program is also starting. Here, new teams and friends will compete in up to six tournaments throughout the year.
Game Changers is an important platform for women to move towards becoming professionals. The VCT Game Changers EMEA 2022 stage will go in parallel with this tournament so that teams can set their sights much higher. These tournaments within the wider EMEA ecosystem will be prevented from overlapping as much as possible. Thus, teams will be able to compete in both Game Changers tournaments and VRL and VCT qualifiers.
VALORANT Regional Circtuits (VRCs)
By 2022, Riot Games wants to seed VALORANT capabilities throughout the region and help them develop. With this goal, a new series of tournaments called VALORANT Regional Circuits (VRC) will be organized especially for these players.
These tournaments are aimed at maximizing the amateur competitive ecosystem that awaits development at the EMEA. It will give players of all skill levels the thrill of competing in an organized tournament and give them the opportunity to show themselves against opponents in their region.
This tournament will allow local players to participate in single competitions throughout the season and earn tour points for their teams. At the end of the season, the teams with the most points will compete to become regional tournament champions.
Over the next year, players will see these VRC tournaments begin to be held at EMEA, and over time there will be a VRC that players from all EMEA regions can participate in.
Live Stream and Watch
In 2022, the number of VALORANT esports tournaments, especially in the EMEA region, is increasing significantly. Spectators will be able to watch a large number of VALORANT esports tournaments. These tournaments include:
• VCT Qualifying
• VCT Season Stages I and II
• VCT Masters Stages I and II
• VCT Promotion Tournament
• EMEA Last Chance Qualifier
• VCT Champions 2022
• Three EMEA Game Changers Tournaments
• Eight VALORANT Regional Leagues
• VRL Final
All VCT events will be broadcast in at least eight languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Polish and Arabic. As the event date approaches, other languages to be published will be shared with the community.
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