From a recent official announcement by Riot Games about plans for the upcoming 2024 year, it was revealed that China will officially become the fourth competitive region of the VCT tour, alongside EMEA, Americas, Pacific. This was disclosed by the game developers in yesterday's video announcement.
The Chief Esports Officer for Valorant, Leo Faria, discussed what awaits the discipline next year. He specifically highlighted the Chinese region and officially stated that starting next year, a new competitive region, China, will appear in the VCT series. As Leo stated, the developers aim to elevate Valorant to the level of the most global esport in the world, and to do that, a competitive scene needs to be established worldwide. He also mentioned that the Chinese audience has immense potential and will make a significant contribution to the growth of the discipline in the future.
After the official game launch in China, creating a new region was only a matter of time, so the decision is completely understandable. Chinese teams have long dominated another Riot Games title, League of Legends, so perhaps we will see a similar trend in Valorant in the future. It's worth noting that three teams from China participated in the current world championship: Bilibili Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix, and EDward Gaming. The latter showed the best results among their peers, managing to make it to the middle of the playoff stage, after which they exited the tournament in 5th-6th place, suffering a loss to LOUD.
It's still unknown which teams will participate in the regional leagues, but it's safe to assume that the above-mentioned three will definitely be among the participants.
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