Riot Announces Franchise Teams For 2023 VALORANT Regional Leagues
After months of speculation and several rumor mills, Riot Games finally announced the list of the accepted franchise teams for next year’s VALORANT International Leagues.
Welcome to the next era of the #VCT
We are proud to introduce the 30 teams who will compete in the VALORANT Champions Tour in 2023.
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) September 21, 2022
With 2023’s new VALORANT Challengers Tour (VCT) format, Riot finally revealed the teams that will be the first ones competing in the all-new International Leagues. Each league (Americas, EMEA, and Pacific) will each be featuring 10 teams for a grand total of 30 franchises.
Here’s a complete rundown of every team in each league:
AMERICAS
- SENTINELS
- 100 THIEVES
- CLOUD9
- NRG
- EVIL GENIUSES
- FURIA
- LOUD
- MIBR
- KRÜ ESPORTS
- LEVIATÁN
The North American and LATAM regions join together as one to become one big region.
The Americas features familiar crowd favorites from both regions such as Sentinels, LOUD, 100 Thieves, FURIA, Leviatán, and KRÜ while also featuring obscure VALORANT teams in Evil Geniuses and a comeback from Cloud9. Notably missing here are Masters Reykjavík 2022 champions OpTic Gaming, XSET, TSM, and Brazil’s Keyd Stars (who participated in multiple LAN events in 2021 including Champions).
The Americas will see its teams competing in Los Angeles, California.
EMEA
- FNATIC
- TEAM LIQUID
- TEAM VITALITY
- KARMINE CORP
- TEAM HERETICS
- GIANTS
- NAVI
- FUT ESPORTS
- BBL ESPORTS
- KOI
EMEA remains intact as a region but is missing familiar names that are known from the region. Besides FNATIC and Team Liquid, the EMEA league will not feature FunPlus Phoenix, 2021 Champions winner Acend, G2 Esports, and M3 Champions.
The EMEA League will be played in Berlin, Germany.
PACIFIC
- ZETA DIVISION
- DETONATION GAMING
- GEN.G
- T1
- DRX
- TEAM SECRET
- PAPER REX
- REX REGUM QEON
- TALON ESPORTS
- GLOBAL ESPORTS
With three major regions combined, the Pacific saw the most teams cut from franchising.
Besides the usual LAN attendees such as ZETA, Paper Rex, and DRX, the Pacific also includes other powerhouse teams such as Team Secret and Rex Regum Qeon. Interestingly enough, only one team from India (Global Esports) managed to secure a franchise slot, while the entire Oceania region is missing. Meanwhile, Talon Esports, a team who just launched their VALORANT roster this year, got accepted despite their lack of major VCT appearances in VCT PH (as the team never got into the group stage).
The Pacific League will be played in Seoul, South Korea.
With so many teams missing out from the International Leagues, they all still have the chance to compete at the highest levels of VALORANT through the Ascension series.
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