Riot announces 30 partner VCT 2023 teams

Riot Games has announced the teams that will partner with VALORANT Champions Tour 2023. In the new year, the competition will be divided into three new international leagues with 10 teams in each.

While choosing the candidates, the company considered the achievements of the teams, but still primarily focused on the organizations' ability to create remarkable matches and increase the popularity of VCT in the long run. The competition level was high, so not all of the top teams qualified to participate.

American League:

European League:

Pacific League:

Interestingly, G2 Esports has not received the VCT 2023 partner status. According to the French insider neL, the reason for this decision was that the head of the esports club Carlos Ocelote Rodriguez invited Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer and a content maker, who is banned on all major platforms for his misogynistic views, to the organization's party. In addition, OpTic Gaming, a finalist in the recent VALORANT Champions 2022, and FunPlus Phoenix, which placed 4th at the event, did not get a partnership in the league.

It is not difficult to guess why Karmine Corp, KOI and Team Heretics are on the list of partners. The teams have a huge fan base and are among the most popular teams in the European regional leagues: they get huge attention since their co-owners are top Twitch creators: Kamet0, Ibai and TheGrefg, respectively. We should also note that 7 representatives of the Top 10 most popular Valorant teams, released before the start of VALORANT Champions 2022, became partners of VCT 2023.

Teams that didn't make the partner list will be participating in Challengers tournaments, which will allow them to win in their region and play in international leagues as part of the new Ascension tournaments. Earlier, Riot announced a new Valorant esports format to be launched in 2023.