Top 4 Most Thrilling Valorant Tournaments in 2023

When Riot announced they were making an FPS game, there were mixed opinions on whether the game would be successful or not. Now, Valorant has almost hit the top of the competitive FPS eSports scene on PC, and loads of pro players have switched over from games like CS: GO. Watching the best Valorant teams go head-to-head with each other in the big eSports games can definitely be a nail-biting experience that may include some cheering (or yelling) at the screen.

If you're interested in watching the action, we've made a breakdown of 4 of the best Valorant tournaments to keep an eye out for. Each of these tournaments features the best teams from around the globe, all competing for glory, fame, prize money, and of course—bragging rights.

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1. VALORANT Regional Leagues: Finals

If there's any tournament worth watching outside of the Champions Tour, it's the Regional Leagues Finals. The Regional Leagues are split into 2 main sections where teams from 7 regions (previously 8, but CIS was removed this year) battle it out to be the grand champions and take home glory and a portion of a $150 000+ prize pool!

The first stage of the Regionals happens inter-regionally, where 8 teams from each region play a best of 2 in the round-robin tournament format (every team plays every other team once each). The top 6 teams with the most wins get selected to enter playoffs, where they battle it out to find the region's best teams.

The top teams of each region then progress through to the Regional League Finals, where they'll all be going against each other in a GSL format—a double elimination bracket that can decide 3rd place, 4th place, 5th place, and so on. The stakes are much higher in the Finals, where the 1st place will walk home with more than $50,000 in prize money. If you've made it this far, though, you'll still be rewarded close to $10,000 for coming in last.

Here's a breakdown of Valorant's next Regional League:

Date of Tournament

Stage 1: January 9th, 2023 Stage 2: March 27th, 2023

Total Prize Pool

€150 000 (2022 amount, 2023 amount yet to be confirmed)

Regions

• Spain (+ Portugal and Italy)
• France
• UK (+Ireland)
• Poland and EE
• MENA
• Turkey
• DACH

Restrictions

Other than standard tournament rules, you'll have to be part of a specific region to participate.

2. Red Bull Campus Clutch

By hosting the Red Bull Campus Clutch every year, Red Bull has made a sweet opportunity for university students to claim fame in Valorant. Universities around the world hold inter-house competitions to find their best team, after which they play regionally to find the region's best teams.

Those teams will then form part of the 300 universities participating across 50 countries, consisting entirely of university students, all competing for bragging rights to be the best team among them all.

The Campus Clutch is certainly exciting right from the beginning. As some regions get stomped on while others excel at the start, it'll be interesting to see which teams gain favor during the tournament. The winners of the whole Campus Clutch will automatically enter the world championships, where they can further prove their skills and potentially become the number 1 team in Valorant.

Here's a breakdown of Red Bull's next Campus Clutch

Date of Tournament

TBD: In 2022, the tournament was held from August to December, so expect the same for 2023

Total Prize Pool

€20,000

Regions

50 countries around the world. Full list here

Restrictions

Other than standard tournament rules, you gotta be 18 or older and a student currently studying at a university.

3. VCT: Game Changers

The Valorant Champions Tour: Game Changers is a world championship hosted by Riot specifically for female competitors—and it's a biggy. In 2022, the finals reached over 230,000 peak viewers, resulting in VCT: Game Changers being the 2nd most-viewed female-only championship ever. In 2022, the Finals were hosted in Berlin, where the top teams from 8 regions competed for a share of €500,000! These are the best of the best in the female gaming world, and many of them belong to recognizable teams with female divisions, like Cloud-9 White, and G2 Gozen.

Game Changers has year-long regionals that have streams running consistently, narrowing down the list of the best teams that will then get a chance to participate in the World Championship and take home the title of being the best female Valorant team for the year. In the World Championship, 8 teams will go head-to-head in a double-elimination bracket, where each game is best-of-three, until the Grand Final, which is a best-of-five. You can find most of the broadcasts over on Twitch.tv.

Apparently, VCT: Game Changers will be different in 2023, with more participants, an increased total of final contestants, bigger prize pools, and way more exciting top-level matches that will happen in the Game Changer World Championship.

Here's a breakdown of what we know about the next VCT: Game Changers:

Date of Tournament

While changes are being made to the tournament, dates have not been revealed, but regional qualifiers might be open soon!

Total Prize Pool

€500,000 (2022 amount, 2023 amount yet to be confirmed)

Regions

Global

Restrictions

Other than standard tournament rules, you'll have to be part of a registered pro team in your region to participate.

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4. VALORANT Champions Tour

If you're going to watch any Valorant streams, you'll wanna watch these ones. The VCT is the ultimate culmination of the best players in the world, competing for the number one title and a prize pool of $1,000,000. Here, you'll find the best commentators hosting the wildest games, with all the teams you've heard of, like Cloud9, NRG, OpTic Gaming, Fnatic, NAVI, G2—and loads of upcoming teams you've never heard of too.

In the VCT, teams will compete inter-regionally against one another in multi-stage challenger playoffs. The top 2 teams will continue to the VCT and face the other regions' best teams. The regionals and finals work very similarly to the VCT Game Changers format, though the stakes are much higher. Simply winning the challenger's regional cup awards the team a prize of $30,000 before even entering the finals, while winning the finals meant walking home with $300,000 for the team.

Semi-Final and Grand Final matches are the most intense matches you'll experience in the Valorant's eSports scene, each being a best-of-five matchup, with a massive live audience. On Twitch, 1,500,000 viewers came on to watch the final match alone, while some even paid a fair amount of money to travel to Turkey and experience the event live.

The next VCT has been announced! Here's what we know so far:

Date of Tournament

• Opening event in Brazil: Feb 13 - March 5, 2023
• Champions Tour 2023 EMEA League: March 26 - May 28, 2023
• Champions Tour 2023 Americas League: March 26 - May 28, 2023
• Champions Tour 2023 Pacific League: March 26 - May 28, 2023

Total Prize Pool

€1,000,000 (2022 amount, 2023 amount is still being calculated.)

Regions

• Spain ( + Portugal and Italy)
• France
• UK (+Ireland)
• Poland and EE
• MENA
• Turkey
• DACH

Restrictions

Other than standard tournament rules, you'll have to be part of the specific region to participate.

Final Words

These 4 major tournaments happen throughout each year, from tryouts to playoffs and finals, so there are hundreds of matches for you to catch live on Riot's site, or over on Twitch. Outside of those, there are loads of smaller tournaments hosted in many different languages around the world. There's probably even a game going on right now.

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