Challengers Ascension will add three VCT orgs—but teams will have to earn it

After each region of the VCT concluded its regular season today, VALORANT esports had an exciting announcement to make, and it’s one many players and fans have been waiting for. The VCT will be expanding the number of teams competing in each region in 2024.

This year is the first year that VALORANT has had an official franchised league, and the new format has already produced fantastic storylines and new rivalries. Yet with the taste of victory also comes the bitterness of what could have been for the organizations that failed to make it through the franchising process last year.

Thankfully for some of these teams, Riot announced that the winners of the VCT Challengers Ascension tournaments later this summer will receive the opportunity to play in their respective main VCT region.

The tournaments will take place in three different countries, one for each region, right after the conclusion of Masters Tokyo in the main league.

• Challengers Ascension: Pacific will take place in Bangkok, Thailand from June 28-July 9.
• Challengers Ascension: EMEA will take place in Berlin, Germany from June 30-July 16.
• Challengers Ascension: Americas will take place in São Paulo, Brazil from June 30-July 9.

Many of the organizations and players that failed to make franchising have been competing in the Challengers leagues for their respective regions and continuing to grow their teams. This is an exciting opportunity for those teams, many of which have players who have won tournaments in previous iterations of the VCT, to make it to the main stage.

Though Riot hasn’t specified that the teams who win each Ascension tournament will become partnered organizations, they will still get the chance to compete in the main VCT league and have equal opportunity to attend the Masters and Champions tournaments. Riot also stated that the three added teams will receive “similar league benefits” to the 30 already-partnered rosters.

Winning Ascension will essentially give each team the opportunity to be promoted into the main VCT league for 2024. With this change, each region will now have 11 teams, for a total of 33 in the league next year.

Each region has slightly different formats for each Ascension tournament because each of the Challengers leagues in each region are also formatted differently. All of the teams participating in Ascension have been competing in the VCT Challengers leagues all year, and Ascension is the final tournament of their season.

You can read all of the specific details about each tournament here, including the format to qualify for the tournament itself.