Upcoming NA Valorant Esports Tournaments: Who (& Where) To Watch
The esports scene in Valorant is still in its infancy, but that doesn't mean its lacking in events. One of the biggest events in North America so far begins on April 29th with the Valorant Champions Tour Playoffs. Eight teams of veterans and newcomers alike will compete for the top spot in order to secure a place in Valorant's first ever LAN tournament: the Valorant Champions Tour Masters in Reykjavík, Iceland.
The four day playoff series begins at 1 PM PST on April 29th. The tournament is a double elimination bracket, meaning participants will have a chance to advance through a losers bracket upon a loss. VCT's playoffs will be played on a patch without the new map Breeze, but Breeze won't remain benched for long. It will be appearing at the finals in Reykjavík. The event will feature eight of North America's best squads: 100 Thieves, Andbox, Cloud9, NRG, Sentinels, Team Envy, Version 1, and XSET. Each of these groups secured their spot through placement in qualifying events, and are hoping to take home a top two spot in order to compete for supremacy in the capital of Iceland.
The event will be livestreamed both on Twitch and YouTube. The official Valorant and Nerd Street Gamers twitch channels will be the primary places to experience the tournament, but there will also be alternative playoff streams on the companies' alternate channels. For both perspectives, viewers can take a peek at the Valorant esports YouTube channel.
Created by former FaZe Clan executives, XSET is coming in hot on the heels of their second place finish in Challengers 1. The team's players have a varied competitive gaming history. Captain thwifo is an ex-Fortnite pro, while members AYRIN and BcJ come from Crossfire and Apex Legends respectively. This diverse set has been placing relatively high in recent tourneys. XSET beat out NRG in the open qualifiers for Challengers 1, but fell just short of first in the actual tourney to 100 Thieves, who defeated them 3-1 in a best of five grand finals. XSET will see themselves re-matching NRG in their first match of the playoffs, and will be looking to repeat their Qualifiers results.
One of the fan-favorite teams coming into the playoffs, 100 Thieves is looking to add another first place finish to their trophy case. One of the "old guard" teams, 100 Thieves' roster is comprised entirely of veteran ex-Counter-Strike pros. Their years of experience has served them well; the group took home first place in the recent Challengers 1 tourney and have placed relatively well in all events they've participated in (barring the Challengers 1 open qualifier, where they were knocked out incredibly early). Viewers are hoping for an excellent performance from long time pro player Hiko, who has become a star in the Valorant streaming scene.
Perhaps the most dominant team arriving in the playoffs is Sentinels. Placing no less than fourth across their entire Valorant tournament history, Sentinels has shown that they are a tour de force in the competitive landscape. The recent temporary acquisition of Cloud 9 player TenZ due to the suspension of Sinatraa has given the squad even greater results: Sentinels took first place in Challengers 2 with a convincing 3-0 victory over Cloud 9 Blue. The stats the team has been putting up are impressive, but the competition still has a chance to catch up.
Valorant's North American scene is shaping up to be another esports hit for Riot Games. The weekend's VCT Playoffs are going to have some exciting games running each day, so now is the perfect time to dive into the game's esports scene. The hype is all leading up to Reykjavík, where the world will see which region is truly the best at competitive Valorant.