Riot is celebrating China’s one-year anniversary in VALORANT with a VCT Masters of its own

Riot Games confirmed today that the second event for the VALORANT Champions Tour 2024 is coming to Shanghai, China.

In China, Riot’s FPS has been accessible to the public since July 2023, but the “promising” community prompted the publisher to set one of VCT’s major competitions in the country next year.

The global head of VALORANT Esports Leo Faria said on July 28 that VCT Masters 2024 will be held in Shanghai one year from now to celebrate the first anniversary of VALORANT’s launch in the country. 

While VALORANT launched globally over three years ago, licensing regulations in China had slowed down its release in the country. But after a lengthy approval process, the game was cleared, theoretically leading to an increase in the playerbase of hundreds of thousands of people. VALORANT was already popular in China, a country and region that has already fielded two teams at past international tournaments for this year’s VCT. 

The insurgence of over 10 teams in the local tournament and the region’s presence at the international event showed Riot how “amazing and promising” the VALORANT community in China is. “To show our appreciation and to celebrate the one year anniversary of VALORANT in China,” Faria said. “Next year we’re very excited to bring masters to Shanghai.”

Marking the 2024 year as “special” for the VCT, Faria underlined once again how global the VALORANT community is, with its game now also being available in one of the most populated countries of the world.

The announcement of the location of Masters 2024 is sure to thrill many VALORANT fans around the world, and those who might have lost hope to attend due to the long journey can still cross their fingers the 2024 LOCK//IN will be hosted near them.