First set of Champions teams locked in

The first ten teams attending Champions 2022 in Istanbul are confirmed after Leviatán’s recent win over XSET in Masters 2: Copenhagen.

2022 ChampionsTurkey, Istanbul, Volkswagen Arena

$1,000,000Prize Pool

16Teams

PremierTier

LOUD

Winner

OpTic Gaming

2nd Place

DRX

3rd Place

Many teams that qualified for Champions 2022 via Circuit Points were already decided and confirmed during the regional qualifiers for Masters 2: Copenhagen. The regions that had their representatives determined were North America, Brazil, Asia-Pacific, and Korea. The teams that could impact the circuit standings were from EMEA, LATAM, and Japan.

For the EMEA region, Guild Esports had an opportunity to knock off either FunPlus Pheonix or Fnatic of the top two slots in the circuit standings. Unfortunately, the playoffs draw had Guild Esports facing off against FunPlus Pheonix in the lower bracket. FPX came out on top, defeating Guild 2-1, confirming Fnatic and FunPlus Pheonix as the first EMEA representatives for Champions 2022.

LATAM had an extremely close race to who would earn automatic qualification into Champions 2022. The race was between KRÜ Esports and Leviatán, featured in Masters 2: Copenhagen. Leviatán had an early lead in the race after defeating KRÜ in the LATAM Stage 2: Challengers Grand Finals; KRÜ Esports would eventually drop out of the race after getting knocked out of Copenhagen early after a loss to OpTic Gaming. Leviatián would secure their spot after winning their series against XSET in the lower bracket.

Lastly, the final region to decide their first Champions representative was Japan. NORTHEPTION had a chance to take the first spot in circuit points, which required the team to place a third or higher to claim the first seed. Unfortunately, NORTHEPTION would fall short in Copenhagen’s group stage and give ZETA DIVISION automatic qualification into Champions 2022.

Every team still participating in the 2022 VCT season has locked in their spot in Champions 2022 or the Last Chance Qualifier that will kick off this August.

Sixteen teams will head to Istanbul to decide who will become Valorant’s second-ever World Champions. The remaining six spots will be determined through the regional LCQ.

Valorant Champions 2022 will feature the following teams:

•  OpTic Gaming
•  XSET
•  Fnatic
•  FunPlus Pheonix
•  LOUD
•  Leviatán
•  DRX
•  ZETA DIVISION
•  Paper Rex
•  XERXIA Esports
•  NA LCQ
•  EMEA LCQ
•  South America LCQ
•  South America LCQ
•  East Asia LCQ
•  APAC LCQ