Following a small break since VALORANT Champions, competition is back. Acordingly, the North American region is ready to restart thanks to the VCT NA 2022 Stage 1 Challengers event this coming week. Indeed, read on as we discuss this awesome event and include all of the necessary viewership details below!
Event Background
As I’ll reiterate, this is the highest level of competitive VALORANT in North America. Accordingly, with certain teams returning from last season, the majority of seeds were earned through Open Qualifiers.
Getting to this point, there is now a prize pool of $200,000 on the line. Taking place online, the top 12 teams in the region will be competing from the 11th February to the 27th March.
Here are your 12 teams listed below:
- Sentinels – Invited
- Team Envy – Invited
- 100 Thieves – Invited
- Cloud9 – Invited
- Version 1 – Open Qualifier 1
- XSET – Open Qualifier 1
- The Guard – Open Qualifier 1
- NRG – Open Qualifier 1
- Evil Geniuses – Open Qualifier 2
- Knights – Open Qualifier 2
- Luminosity Gaming – Open Qualifier 2
- Rise – Open Qualifier 2
Besides the prize pool and the VALORANT Champions Tour points on the line, there are seeds on the line. Specifically, VCT Stage 1 Masters seeds will be available for the top 2 placing teams.
Let’s dive into the details below.
Format
With regards to the format, it’s a familiar sight.
Accordingly, we’ll first kick things off with a Group Stage. With the teams split into two groups of six, which are yet to be announced, a round robin will take place. At this stage, all matches will be BO3, and the stakes are as follows:
- Top 4 from each Group – advance to Playoffs
- Bottom 2 from each Group – eliminated
Indeed, once they’ve made it to the Playoffs, things turn up a notch. Seeded into a Double Elimination bracket, all matches are BO3, except for the biggest ones.
Specifically, the Losers’ Final and Grand Final will instead be BO5 games, as we crown our very top teams for the online regional tournament.
Schedule for the VCT NA 2022 Stage 1 Challengers
With regards to the schedule for the upcoming event, Riot Games is yet to release the official match list to look forward to, likely doing so once the Groups are announced.
Until then, we highly recommend staying up to date thanks to the Valorant Esports schedule page here.
Watch the VCT NA 2022 Stage 1 Challengers on esportsguide
You can also watch the VCT NA 2022 Stage 1 Challengers live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions
Heading into this new season, there are certainly a tonne of changes which have taken place to the rosters involved. Yet, let’s try and predict carefully by first taking a look at last season’s North American Standings:
- #1 – Sentinels – 775 Points
- #2 – Team Envy – 450 Points
- #3 – 100 Thieves – 375 Points
- #4 – Version1 – 200 Points
- #5 – FaZe Clan – 120 Points
- #6 – XSET – 90 Points
- #7 – Luminosity Gaming – 60 Points
- #8 – Gen.G Esports – 50 Points
- #9 – Rise – 50 Points
However, this time around there are some new names. Specifically the likes of The Guard and Knights look to make some noise and try upset some of these bigger names.
Considering the placements at VALORANT Champions, our favourite for the event stands between Cloud9, Sentinels and Team Envy.
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