Riot Games has unveiled the highly anticipated format for the 2023 season of the VALORANT Champions Tour.

We’ve known for a while now that Riot has been interviewing esports organisations to partner with going into next season. Not necessarily franchising per se but more like how Halo’s doing it.

Recently it was announced how exactly Riot intends to continue support for the lower tiers of competitive play. The only question up in the air was how exactly would the format play out in the top tier of VALORANT. Now we have an answer.

The start of the new season will see every team selected for partnership be invited to Sao Paulo, Brazil for the “largest international tournament in VCT history”. The tournament will last three weeks and will give us fans a chance to get a first look at the new rosters and find out which team built the best squad during the offseason.

The Sao Paulo event is slated to start in February and crown a winner in early March. The team who hails victorious will automatically qualify for the first Masters of the year.

Following this will be the start of the first competitive split of the year will begin with weekly LAN competition in EMEA, PACIFIC, and the Americas. International League matches will take place in three cities: Berlin, Seoul, and Los Angeles. Each location will feature on-site talent providing coverage in multiple languages for fans around the world.

This split will begin in March, feature eight weeks of regular-season competition, and crown three league champions in May. While subsequent seasons will feature two International League splits, 2023 will supplement one split with the international tournament in order to provide teams with adequate time to set up in their respective hub locations.

“The VALORANT community’s passion inspired us to dream big and evolve the VALORANT Champions Tour to meet the overwhelming demand we’re seeing in every corner of the world,” said Whalen Rozelle, COO, Esports at Riot Games. “In 2023, we’re taking everything we’ve learned, adding in new ideas and forming partnerships that will help us realize our dreams for the next edition of the VCT.”

Masters will return in June and as usual, will feature the best teams from each international league. This event will reward top teams from each territory with direct qualification to Champions.

July will see the return of the Last Chance Qualifiers, where top-performing teams who have not yet qualified for Champions will get one last shot to earn an invitation to the most important event of the season. Each of the three LCQs will advance one team into Champions. The VCT season will conclude with Champions in August. After an inaugural season full of new changes and new events.

Riot Games also shared new details about the Challenger Circuit, which will take place concurrently alongside the VCT season, providing aspiring teams with a path to qualify for international competition for the 2024 season. Essentially, Riot is resetting the circuit, as if the 2023 season is the first ever competitive VALORANT season.

Two Challenger splits will begin in January and conclude with the Ascension tournaments in July. These tournaments will feature the best teams from more than twenty different Challenger leagues competing on LAN for regional pride and promotion into the international leagues.