VCT LOCK//IN Sao Paulo 2023 will feature 2 invited Chinese teams to fill out a 32-team tournament

Two additional VALORANT teams have been added to the VCT LOCK//IN tournament in São Paulo, which is set to begin next month. 

The VCT LOCK//IN tournament, which will begin on Feb. 13 and conclude at the start of March, will include two teams from China to bump the total number of teams in attendance to 32.

Both EDward Gaming, who attended the most recent VALORANT Champions, and FunPlus Phoenix ZHUQUE will attend the tournament alongside all other partnered teams from across the world. 

Both EDG and FPX are touted as the top two teams from China. They fought against each other in the FGC VALORANT Invitational 2022: Epilogue tournament, which concluded on Dec. 25. FPX came out on top and defeated EDG 3-1 in the grand final.

At the event, FPX will face off against Karmine Corp in the first round while EDG are set to play against 100 Thieves. 

EDG competed at VALORANT Champions last year, which was the first time a Chinese team had competed at an international tournament in VALORANT. EDG faced off against Paper Rex and Team Liquid but failed to win a match. 

FPX previously fielded a European roster but the core was later transferred to Natus Vincere since FPX failed to secure a partnership with Riot Games to compete in the EMEA international league. As a result, FPX departed from the European scene to focus on its Chinese roster.