The top 16 teams will descend unto Los Angeles, California for VCT Champions 2023 from August 6 - 26.
The VALORANT Champions Tour 2023 season will soon come to an end with VCT Champions acting as the culminating event of its first year as a partnership league. This will also mark the first time the VCT international circuit will be making its way to North America with Los Angeles, California playing host to the prestigious event. The best 16 teams in the world will descend unto the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall for its group stage and playoff matches while the KIA Forum indoor arena will set the stage for the top-four showdown.
LOUD will head into the tournament as the reigning world champions but their performances this season have been anything but. While the entirety of NA will be behind the VCT Americas teams, the EMEA might have something to say about that with Fnatic chasing the first-ever trinity of titles having secured the VCT LOCK//IN and Masters Tokyo trophies already this season. However, you cannot count out VCT Pacific as well with the likes of Paper Rex always looking to have a good run on the international stage.
VCT Champions 2023 - Format & Schedule
The group stage of VCT Champions 2023 will take place from August 6 - 13 with four groups consisting of four teams each who will play in a double-elimination GSL-style format. All matches in the group stage will be a best-of-three series.
Only the top two teams from each group can progress to the playoffs with the first portion from August 16 - 20. This is to determine the final four teams that will play at the KIA Forum from August 24 - 26. The playoffs will also be a double-elimination bracket with every series being a best-of-three, apart from the lower bracket final and the grand finals. Those will be a best-of-five series instead.
VCT Champions 2023 - Prize Pool
Just a week ago, Riot Games announced an update to the prize pool for VCT Champions 2023, taking it from $1 million to $2.25 million. This means that whoever takes home the title this year will also be walking away with $1 million at first place. To put that into perspective, that was the total prize pool for the past two VCT Champions. Here is a breakdown of the entire prize pool distribution:
| Placement | USD ($) |
| 1st | $1,000,000 |
| 2nd | $400,000 |
| 3rd | $250,000 |
| 4th | $130,000 |
| 5th - 6th | $85,000 |
| 7th - 8th |
$50,000 |
| 9th - 12th | $30,000 |
| 14th - 16th | $20,000 |
VCT Champions 2023 - Teams
The group stage has been set for all 16 teams with some amazing match-ups to look forward to. With four groups to choose from, many will have their eyes on Group D, which features reigning world champions LOUD, the VCT EMEA League champions Team Liquid, as well as dark horses like NAVI and DRX. Group A also has two titans from the East in the form of VCT Pacific champions Paper Rex as well as one of the best teams in China, EDward Gaming.
Group C will also garner plenty of attention with Fnatic being one of the main favourites to lift the world title, being the first team in VCT history to win all three major international LANs in a single season. However, they will first have to contend with one of the best in VCT Americas, NRG as well as Eastern opposition in the form of ZETA Division and Bilibili Gaming. Lastly, there is Group B with the Masters Tokyo first-runner ups, Evil Geniuses alongside the Stage 2 Masters - Copenhagen winners, FunPlus Phoenix as well as the third-placed seeds from VCT Pacific and EMEA, T1 and FUT Esports.
Group A
EDward Gaming
Giants
KRÜ Esports
Paper RexGroup B
Evil Geniuses
FunPlus Phoenix
FUT Esports
T1Group C
Bilibili Gaming
Fnatic
NRG
ZETA DIVISIONGroup D
DRX
LOUD
Natus Vincere
Team Liquid
VCT Champions 2023 - Who to look out for
No team has yet been able to create a dynasty within the VCT just yet with Fnatic being the only one so far coming close to it. While they will have to win Champions in order to do so, there are also plenty of teams who are looking to stop them in their tracks. Evil Geniuses will be one such team to look out for as they were the only team to take a game off of Fnatic during Masters Tokyo. And with EG being only the third-best VCT Americas team on paper, that also leaves the door open for teams like NRG and LOUD, with the latter being the reigning champions.
Paper Rex from VCT Pacific could also put up a good fight for the world title after its third-place finish at Masters Tokyo with a stand-in. As they will finally be able to field its starting roster from the Pacific League grand finals, PRX is one such team that many will keep an eye out for due to their unorthodox playstyle and agent picks. DRX is another team from VCT Pacific that will cause some headaches after managing a third-place finish at Champions last year.
The East is not short of firepower this time around as EDward Gaming from China will be seen as one of the dark horses of the tournament after a tremendous showing at Masters Tokyo. The fact that they are the number one seed from China says a lot and they will put up a great fight in Group A. Of coruse, we can't leave out EMEA with Team Liquid being able to pose a serious threat to Fnatic's title challenge. With Liquid being the only team to successfully defeat Fnatic in a grand final, they could very well be one of the few teams capable of going toe-to-toe with arguably the best team in the world right now.
VCT Champions 2023 - Where to watch
The VCT Champions 2023 will start later today at 12.00 pm PDT with Group D kicking things off with Team Liquid and NAVI. DRX and LOUD will take to the stage for the second and final group stage game of the day at 3.00 pm PDT. Be sure to catch all the action on the official VALORANT Twitch channel.
