Path to First Strike announced for North America

Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen regions such as Southeast Asia, the CIS, and Turkey recieve their First Strike information. But it’s been quiet when it comes to one of the most important regions in VALORANT, North America. With fans, players, and personalities alike all clamoring for information, today, Riot Games has delivered and announced the First Strike qualification path in the region.

It all begins on October 26th, 2020, one week from today, with the first open qualifier hosted by Nerd Street Gamers. The event runs until the 30th, and will bring a total of 128 participating teams down to 16. Those 16 will then participate in the first qualifying tournament, held from November 4-8. The top 4 teams in this qualifier will advance directly to First Strike, while the next 4 will receive an invite to the second qualifying tournament and all others will have to go through the next open qualifier. The Nerd Street Gamers events can be watched on twitch.tv/nerdstgamers or twitch.tv/VALORANT_NA.

The next open qualifier will be run by UMG Gaming, and begins on November 11th. No maximum number of teams has been announced. The top 12 will join the 4-8th place teams from the NSG qualifying tournament to form UMG’s 16-team qualifying tournament, taking place from November 18-22. The top 4 from this event will join the top 4 from the previous one and will form the 8 teams making up North America’s First Strike. The UMG tournaments can be watched on twitch.tv/UMGGaming or, like the entire process, twitch.tv/VALORANT_NA.

Finally, we come to First Strike, taking place from December 3-6. The top 8 teams will compete for the 100,000$ prize pool. Quarterfinals will take place on the 3rd and 4th, semifinals on the 5th, and the grand finals on the 6th.

The total process is:

October 26-30th: NSG Open Qualifier

16 teams advance to the first qualifying tournament

November 4-8th: NSG Qualifying Tournament

Top 4 teams advance to VALORANT First Strike

Next 4 teams advance to UMG Qualifying Tournament

November 11-15th: UMG Open Qualifier

12 teams from UMG advance to the second qualifying tournament

November 18-22nd: UMG Qualifying Tournament

Pool includes 4 teams from NSG Qualifying Tournament

Top 4 teams advance to VALORANT First Strike

December 3-6th: VALORANT First Strike Regional Finals

Interested participants can register for the Nerd Street Gamers open qualifier at events.nerdstgamers.com/events, and for the UMG Gaming open qualifier at umggaming.com. Get your team ready - North America’s edition of the biggest VALORANT event yet is finally here.