Over the four years of its existence, the professional Valorant scene has nearly fully established itself, presenting to viewers as a well-oiled machine. The entire competitive season is divided into regular stages in each of the four competitive regions, two major Masters series tournaments, and the main event of the year, the world championship - Valorant Champions. It is this final event that attracts the most viewers and plays a key role in shaping the professional Valorant scene. Therefore, today, the Bo3 editorial team has prepared material for you in which we will recall the previous championships, their contributions to Valorant, and the growth in popularity among viewers.
Valorant Champions 2021
Before talking about the first championship, it's important to consider how the Valorant esports scene developed from its inception. Following the successful launch of the game on June 2, 2020, there was no official competitive season from Riot Games for a while. By the end of that year, almost half of all events were organised by tournament operators like BLAST, WePlay, or well-known esports organisations like T1, FaZe Clan, Mandatory, and others. Tournaments from Riot Games also existed, but they were not unified into a single season and were called First Strike, held in each of the competitive regions. Starting in 2021, the game developers officially launched the tier-2 league Challenger, where teams competed for cash prizes and points, which ultimately allowed some participants to advance to the Masters series tournaments and later to the first world championship - Valorant Champions 2021.
The championship itself took place in Berlin at the Marlene-Dietrich-Halle location, with the event occurring in winter from December 1 to 12, 2021. Sixteen teams participated, 11 of which received invitations thanks to points earned during the season, 4 through the last qualifying stage Last Chance, and one team became the champion of Masters Berlin, also securing a slot. The prize pool of the tournament was $1,000,000, which was quite unusual. On one hand, for a discipline that had been in existence for just over a year, such an amount is impressive. But on the other, compared to giants of the esports scene, where prize pools can reach tens of millions of dollars, the first Valorant Champions offered not a particularly large prize. Although the attitude towards the prize pool is a subjective matter, it later becomes clear that Riot Games does not plan to significantly increase the reward for the tournament. This rather speaks about the policy of the company itself, considering their other discipline, League of Legends. The most popular representative of the MOBA genre also does not offer large prizes, compared to its main competitor Dota 2, but professional LoL teams receive a large part of their income from partnerships and advertising. Another reason for the relatively small prize pool is Riot Games' faith in their Valorant community, which ultimately lived up to expectations and supported the teams through the purchase of the championship bundle.
From November 24 to December 12, 2021, developers released the Champions 2021 Collection in the in-game store, the first set dedicated to the VCT Champions event. It included a skin for Vandal and a Karambit knife, and the set was limited, with it no longer being available for purchase after the championship ended. The set was priced at about $60, but despite the price, it gained tremendous popularity. During the sales period, the Champions 2021 Collection was purchased by players for more than $7,500,000, with half of that amount being distributed among the participating teams. This way, each of the 16 teams received an additional $234,375, particularly interesting against the backdrop of teams that finished in the last 13-16 places. For such a result, they received $20,000, which is much less than the amount earned from the sale of the set.
After 12 days of intense competition, two teams made it to the grand final and fought for the world champion title, Gambit Esports and Acend. The latter, after 5 tense maps: Breeze 11-13, Ascend 13-7, Fracture 3-13, Icebox 14-12, Split 13-8, achieved a hard-fought victory and became the first world champion of Valorant. It's worth noting that the grand final gathered the largest number of viewers at the peak of its popularity, with 1,089,068 viewers watching the match. Notably, in 2024, the first world champions are not in the best position. The team is competing in the tier-2 league Challengers, and all the first players of the championship squad have dispersed to other teams. Read more about the fate of the organisation and participants in the article below.
Overall, the first Valorant Champions 2021 showed good results. The interest of ordinary players and media personalities in the game grew, and Valorant confidently headed towards becoming one of the most popular esports disciplines in the coming years.
Valorant Champions 2022
The next world championship, which took place in 2022, continued the successful development of Valorant and received the title of the tournament with the best start, during the existence of the discipline. After a successful 2021, the Valorant esports scene continued to adhere to the previous year's principles. Thus, teams again competed in the Challengers league, where they earned regional points and received invitations to major Masters tournaments, apart from the prize pool, which also played for more points. It should be noted that both Masters 2022 Copenhagen and Reykjavík stages did not give the winners direct invitations to the championship, which later changed in future years. Thus, 16 teams participated in Valorant Champions 2022, 10 of which entered the tournament thanks to the number of points earned during the season, and another 6 through Last Chance qualifiers. The event took place from August 31 to September 18, 2022, in Istanbul at the Volkswagen Arena. After that tournament, Riot Games officially agreed on the timing of the championship, and Valorant Champions 2022, like subsequent ones, would be held in the summer-autumn period. The prize pool of the tournament again amounted to $1,000,000, but again was supplemented by sales of the championship bundle.
During the period from August 23 to September 21, the Champions 2022 Collection was available for sale, which included skins for Phantom and a Butterfly knife. It should be noted that after the success of the previous year's set, developers extended its availability period, and instead of 18 days, the Champions 2022 Collection was available in the in-game store for almost a full month - 29 days. This allowed significantly increasing the number of sales, which anyway broke the previous year's record. During the time the set was available in the store, it was purchased for more than $16,000,000. Half of this amount was divided among the 16 participating teams, thus each team received an additional $500,000. Considering that participants for the last places received $15,000 in prize money, this is an exceptionally good bonus.
The tournament ended with a grand final in which representatives from Brazil, LOUD, faced the American team OpTic Gaming. Although the match ended with a victory for the former with a score of 3-1, the triumph did not come easily, with intense battles and additional rounds on the maps: Ascent 15-13, Bind 6-13, Breeze 16-14, Haven 13-5. Interestingly, the fate of the silver medalists OpTic eventually turned out not very successfully. Despite the $150,000 in prize money, as well as a bonus from the sales of the championship set, the organization disbanded its lineup, and the players dispersed to other teams.
In general, Valorant Champions 2022 continued the development of the discipline on the international scene, as well as broke the record for views of the previous championship. At the peak of popularity, 1,505,804 viewers watched the grand final, nearly 500,000 more than the previous year.
Valorant Champions 2023
The latest world championship introduced a new system for tournament invitations. The fact is that the competitive season started with a new tournament, LOCK//IN São Paulo, which, apart from the prize pool, did not provide teams with points or invitations. After it, Riot Games added a so-called regular season in the EMEA, Americas, and Pacific regions. During it, teams competed for direct invitations to the world championship and Masters Tokyo, which was the only one in 2023, as well as to the Last Chance Qualifier tournaments. Thus, 16 teams performed at Valorant Champions 2023, 4 from America, 4 from the Pacific region, 3 from China, and 5 from Europe. The event took place from August 6 to 26, 2023, in Los Angeles. The group stage took place at the Shrine Expo Hall, and the playoffs at the Kia Forum.
As in previous years, Riot Games released the Champions 2023 Collection of skins in honor of the championship, which included Vandal, and a Kunai knife. It should be noted that the latter faced a barrage of criticism from the game community. Its drawbacks describe a rather simple design, as well as the fact that it is a complete copy of the Skeleton Knife, from then-competitor CS:GO. Despite the criticism, the Champions 2023 Collection sold even more successfully than last year's set. During the period from August 4 to 29, the set was purchased for more than $20,000,000. As before, half of this amount was divided among the participating teams, thus each of them received an additional $625,000.
After 20 days of competition, representatives from America - Evil Geniuses and Singapore - Paper Rex met in the grand final. After four tense maps: Split 13-10, Ascnet 11-13, Bind 13-5, Lotus 13-10, Evil Geniuses won the victory and the title of the reigning world champion. Interestingly, one of the teams that participated in the grand final again faced problems, but this time, unlike in 2022, it concerned the champions. After the end of the season, information appeared online that players of Evil Geniuses were kept in contractual prison, for which the organization received a barrage of criticism from players and media personalities. As a result, after several months of reviews, 4 out of 5 players of the championship lineup dispersed, and now the team is experiencing not the best times.
Interestingly, the number of viewers of last year's championship also cannot be called very successful. At the peak of popularity, only 1,291,045 viewers watched the grand final, nearly 300,000 less than in 2022. It is still unclear whether this indicates a decline in the popularity of Valorant, or possibly depends on the participating teams. To find out whether the game still attracts as many viewers as before, it is necessary to follow the upcoming tournament.
Conclusion
After reading our material, you learned how the most important tournaments in the discipline developed as they appeared and how many viewers they attracted. It is worth noting that in just a few months, Valorant Champions 2024 is expected, in which 16 teams from 4 competitive regions will participate. Continue to follow our portal to learn more interesting information about upcoming tournaments, as well as periodically recall past events and their features.
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