‘There really are no bad teams’: the first-ever VCT Americas 2023 split is here

The inaugural VALORANT Champions Tour Americas season is here.

Starting Saturday, Riot Games’ 10 hand-selected organizations from North America, Brazil, and Latin America will engage in eight straight weeks of single round-robin matches followed by a double-elimination playoffs stage, all with fans in attendance at the aptly renamed Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles.

With VALORANT history set to be made throughout April and May, players and coaches from 100 Thieves, Cloud9, NRG, and Sentinels spoke to Dot Esports last week about their excitement, preparations, and expectations for the first VCT Americas split.

The anticipation for league play to begin is high. C9 head coach Matthew “mCe” Elmore shared how he grew up watching the LCS, making it especially gratifying that he is going to help introduce fans to the Americas league.

To Sentinels head coach Don “Syyko” Muir, the launch of this league is the culmination of all of the work those in the scene have put in over the past three years.

“Everything we were doing in beta and the open circuit last year was all with the goal in mind of ‘let’s get to the partnership league,’” Syyko told Dot. “We saw what they were doing with League of Legends and how well they ran that league and just how smooth things were and how great it was for the teams and orgs involved. So now to finally be here, day one, coming in doing media day, seeing the stage. It’s all really exciting and it’s kind of that realization moment of ‘Wow, we finally made it here.’”

In 2021 and 2022, the regional portions of the VCT schedule revolved around pseudo-open Challengers circuits, where teams fought online for the chance to compete at international Masters and VALORANT Champions events.

With the introduction of the international leagues, its partner teams no longer have to worry about striking out and reverting to playing online matches. They have a guaranteed number of weeks to step on stage—an opportunity that 100 Thieves head coach Michael “Mikes” Hockom is welcoming with open arms.

“It’s nice just to have LAN and not have to worry about online games and servers and all that stuff anymore,” Mikes said.

NRG’s Pujan “FNS” Mehta emphasized that playing in a league season was what he was looking forward to the most when he made the switch to VALORANT, and that it’ll be nice to stay home and have “somebody to cheer for us.”

Having coached in three international VALORANT LANs overseas with 100 Thieves, Mikes was right there with him.

“I think Brazil, the crowd was really good,” Mikes said. “Istanbul, the crowd was really good. But, obviously, everyone has their favorites. I think here will be probably more neutral. Just people wanting to watch the games.”

For Sentinels’ Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, a standout advantage of having an elongated LAN season is that fans won’t have to worry about their favorite teams being eliminated before getting the opportunity to catch them play.

“I think the schedule is really good because it creates like a consistency thing so fans know when to tune into matches,” TenZ said. “It doesn’t feel like, ‘Oh, I have to make it to like this week or this month.’”

If there is an obstacle that players will have to adapt to while playing on stage weekly, however, mCe pointed to poor sound being a culprit.

“One of the things that’s overlooked at LAN tournaments is you can’t hear that well,” mCe said.

As is often the case in LAN tournaments throughout esports, VCT players are instructed to use two pieces of audio peripherals. The first is a headset to communicate with their teammates, which also plays white noise to drown out tips from the crowd or casters. To hear the game, players must also wear a pair of earbuds that goes under the headset.

“In-ears just aren’t as good as over-ear headphones, plus with the extra noise,” mCe explained. “Even when we were in Iceland, there wasn’t a crowd but you still have white noise in your headset. So I think people getting more used to that but also just nerve-wise and stuff. I think it’ll help.”

After the initial weeks of the Americas season, expect the intensity to pick up drastically. By virtue of this year’s VCT LOCK//IN taking the place of what would’ve been a second split for each of the Americas, EMEA, and Pacific leagues, the top three teams from each in this single stretch of matches will qualify for both Masters Tokyo and VALORANT Champions 2023.

Considering the condensed nature of this year’s VCT calendar, Syyko acknowledged that he understands why the format had to be this way—teams need time to get situated in their new hubs—but admitted that strategizing from week to week is going to be a balancing act to find the immediate success needed to qualify. Mikes said with the added pressure, it’s going to be hard to predict if teams will want to play it more safe or go for “out-of-meta stuff.”

For mCe, it all comes down to the fact that the difference between making or missing the Americas playoffs determines what teams will be doing for the following months. After the playoffs, the three Americas teams that fail to qualify for Masters Tokyo will have to wait until July for the Last Chance Qualifier to come around—a waiting period that’s even longer for the four teams that will have missed the postseason entirely.

“It’s always more fun to prepare for an event than it is to just practice and not have a goal or something to work towards,” mCe said.

In terms of early favorites to come out of the gates strong, the South American teams collected the most praise, from LOUD to Leviatán and FURIA.

TenZ felt that LOUD “made the Americas region proud as a whole” at LOCK//IN, pointing specifically to their blend of “nuts individuals” and a “proper team identity” making them the name to beat at the moment. Syyko spoke about how Leviatán continues to look really good, and that they’re potentially a top contender lying in wait whose “match performance hasn’t reflected how just truly dominant they are in practices.”

“I think you saw it at LOCK//IN,” mCe said. “We have some of the better teams in the world in our bracket. We played most of these guys in practice while we were there a good chunk and there are no bad teams. There really are no bad teams, so it’s going to be an exciting season.”

The 2023 VCT Americas season kicks off on Saturday, April 1, at 2pm CT with 100 Thieves vs. Sentinels.