Game Changers EMEA previews impactful changes ahead of 2024 VALORANT season

With this year’s VALORANT Game Changers Championship right around the corner, the EMEA league has provided a sneak peek of some very important changes for the 2024 season. 

On November 3, VALORANT Game Changers EMEA product manager Ashley Washington released a preview of upcoming 2024 season changes through Scoutli founder and journalist Nazli “jiji” Özmen on Twitter. 

Though these won’t be huge structural changes to the way the league runs overall, they will have a significant impact on how teams are formed and maintained going forward.

“Points now belong to organizations, to protect players from disruptive roster changes during the season, organizations will be required to retain at least three starting roster players between Stages of the league, and outside of the Roster Lock periods,” jiji wrote. “If they change more than three players, they lose points but retain league status.”

This, of course, raises the question of how unsigned teams factor into the equation. According to Washington and jiji, teams that aren’t represented by an organization will still be subject to the “starting three” rule when it comes to points ownership during a given season. Additionally, any new organization entering the league and signing previously unsigned teams before the season starts will also have to follow this rule for points ownership. 

It’s important to note these rules are only applicable between a given season’s various series. Teams will be able to completely switch their rosters around in between seasons without having to follow the starting three rule. Teams promoted into the league from Contenders will become subject to all of these rules upon qualification. 

Who owns the points is important, since they determine which teams are able to qualify for the World Championship at the end of the year. If a core of players earn points for their organization or unsigned team, they can’t just be replaced during their current season.

The 2024 EMEA VALORANT Game Changers season will begin sometime in late January, according to the post. The full calendar and further details on the events will be released sometime before the end of the year.