Sources: VALORANT partner leagues to begin in February 2023, teams to receive minimum stipend of $600,000

The three inaugural international VALORANT leagues are set to begin in mid-February 2023 and conclude in September 2023, multiple sources tell Dot Esports. Additionally, teams in the leagues will be given stipends of at least $600,000, according to multiple sources.

Several organizations in multiple regions have completed their final interviews with Riot Games regarding the partnership program next year. Other organizations are waiting to conclude their meetings this week. Riot has been stringent on the deliverables of each organization, including finances and content output, both of which are very important to the company, multiple sources tell Dot Esports. 

Teams will be notified whether they have secured a place in the international leagues by mid-September, according to sources. After that point, there will be several months for organizations to sign new players in the designated transfer window period from October to February, when the season will begin, according to multiple sources. There will be third-party tournaments during this period. 

Teams in the international leagues will be given a stipend by Riot Games. There will be a $300,000 base payment, an additional $300,000 as a minimum for team skins and other in-game merchandise, and a further $400,000 depending on whether teams achieve other content deliverables, according to multiple sources. This would equal around $1 million for teams that achieve all deliverables set by Riot.

In North America, the shortlisted organizations, which include teams such as OpTic Gaming, 100 Thieves, Sentinels, XSET, Evil Geniuses, TSM, The Guard, Cloud9, and Version1 have made it through to the final round, according to sources. Most teams have concluded their final meetings and are awaiting Riot’s final decision to cut the list down to around six to eight teams. 

These teams will be placed alongside Brazilian and Latin American teams in the Americas league, which will field 10 teams total. The EMEA and APAC international leagues will field the same number, as first reported by Dot Esports. 

The Asia-Pacific league will be held in Seoul, where teams from the region will have to re-locate to compete. Meanwhile, the European league will likely be held in Berlin, and the Americas league will be held in Los Angeles, according to multiple sources.