Matthew Gromala
When Does Valorant Champions Take Place?
Throughout the first half of August, the teams that performed well enough in their regions but fell short of automatic qualification were entered into one of five Last Chance Qualifier gauntlets, featuring other top domestic talent. When the dust had settled, 100 Thieves, Team Liquid, KRÜ Esports, FURIA, BOOM Esports, and EDward Gaming had emerged victorious and joined the 10 teams that had been confirmed for Champions via circuit point placing in their respective regions. Champions will start on Wednesday, Aug. 31, in the Volkswagen Arena in Istanbul, Turkey with the group stage matches.
Valorant Champions Format Explained
Unlike the past two international events, all teams at Champions will have to battle their way through the group stage to reach the playoffs. From each group of four teams, only two will advance to the eight-team playoff stage. Two wins against the best from around the world are required in order to advance. All matches will be best-of-three matches except the lower bracket final and grand final. Those two series will be best-of-five. The teams that have been slotted into each group are:
Group ALeviatán (Latin American representative)EDward Gaming (East Asia LCQ)Team Liquid (EMEA LCQ)Paper Rex (Asia-Pacific representative) Group BOpTic Gaming (North American representative)ZETA DIVISION (Japanese representative)LOUD (Brazilian representative)BOOM Esports (Asia-Pacific LCQ)Group CFunPlus Phoenix (Masters: Copenhagen winner)KRÜ Esports (South American LCQ)XSET (North American representative)XERXIA Esports (Asia-Pacific representative)Group DDRX (Korean representative)FNATIC (EMEA representative)FURIA (South American LCQ)100 Thieves (North American LCQ)
The initial group stage matchups have also been randomly drawn. The matchups are as follows:
Group APaper Rex vs EDward GamingLeviatán vs Team LiquidGroup BOpTic Gaming vs BOOM EsportsZETA DIVISION vs LOUDGroup CFunPlus Phoenix vs KRÜ EsportsXSET vs XERXIA EsportsGroup DDRX vs FURIAFNATIC vs 100 Thieves
Once the group stage has concluded, and the participants have been reduced by half, the remaining eight teams will be seeded into the double-elimination playoff bracket, which has been the standard for all international events of 2022 so far. Matches will begin on Wednesday, Aug. 31 at 10 a.m. Eastern with the two Group A matches. The day after, three matches will be played until Sunday, Sept. 4 starting at 6 a.m. Eastern. On Monday, Sept. 5, the number of matches each day will revert back to two and will start at 10 a.m. Eastern. That trend will continue through the playoffs until Saturday, Sept. 17 with the lower bracket final. It will be the only match that day. Similarly, the grand final the day after will be the only match taking place on that day. Each series, barring the lower bracket final and grand final, will last approximately three hours.
How to Watch Valorant Champions
A variety of watch parties are available on Twitch and YouTube for fans to tune into. However, the official Valorant Twitch and YouTube streams will be broadcasting all the games without additional watch party commentary for English-speaking fans. The official Valorant esports Twitter account recently released an extensive list of official watch party hosts for viewers around the world. That’s everything you need to know about when Valorant Champions is taking place and how to watch the event. If you haven’t checked it out already, check out Riot’s stellar music video for the event, Fire Again. If that doesn’t satisfy your hype needs, check out Riot’s Champions Cinematic FEAR/NONE after you’ve listened to Fire Again and added it to your playlists.
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