Italy and Portugal to get their own Challengers league

Before proceedings for the upcoming season commence, Riot has come bearing good news for the EMEA region. Portugal and Italy will be receiving their own Challengers league. During VCT 2022, Riot introduced the concept of regional leagues in the EMEA region to provide more talent the opportunity to showcase their skills, and their endeavor was quite successful in amassing engagement from the regional community and providing them much-needed exposure on a global scale.

However, this format still had a major shortcoming. Several countries were grouped together in a tournament, which meant that a considerable percentage of national tournaments in EMEA countries was still overshadowed. To put things in perspective, teams from Italy and previously participated at the VRL - Spain: Rising - Stage 2 - Main Event only consisting of 10 spots between three countries where the Spanish team Case Esports came out on top.

To combat this issue and building on the success of their pilot program, Riot will be introducing individual leagues for both Portugal and Italy throughout the VCT 2023 season, which will grant a spot to the top teams into Challengers Ascension and eventually a place at the International League will be up for grabs. Another factor contributing to their decision is the ever-growing Valorant community in both countries, and the presence of untapped potential being too significant to overlook.

According to Riot’s blog, PGEsports will be organizing the Italian Tournament as they possess the experience of hosting League of Legends Italian ERL since 2018, whereas the Portugal tournament will be hosted as a collaborative effort of Inygon and Goatpixel with Inygon being reputed for hosting the Portuguese ERL for 5 consecutive years and committing resources to Valorant since its launch.

Header image courtesy of Riot Games