VCT 2024 details: Kickoff Tournaments dates, qualifications for Masters Shanghai, new points system

After a long off-season, VALORANT Champions Tour 2024 returns soon. Riot Games has unveiled many new details about the upcoming season, including two Masters events, a new points system, a new qualifier system for Masters and Champions events, and more.

With the start of the new VCT season, we will see 11 teams in each regional league and an addition of a new VCT CN League in the VCT Circuit. These 11 teams will compete to secure their spots for the upcoming VALORANT Masters Madrid, Shanghai, and VALORANT Champions. The teams will start the season with a Kickoff Tournament in their respective league, two stages of IL competition, two international Masters tournaments, and a new points system, which will help them qualify for Champions 2024.

VCT 2024 International League Start Date and Format

The VCT 2024 Season will begin in February with a Kickoff Tournament; the top 2 teams from each region in the Kickoff Tournament will be directly qualifying for the VALORANT Masters Madrid, which will start on March 14, 2024. Here are the start dates for the Kickoff tournament for each VCT region:

• February 16 - VCT Americas
• February 17 - VCT Pacific
• February 20 - VCT EMEA
• February 22 - VCT CN

The Kickoff Tournament will have a new format where the 11 teams will be seeded and split into three groups. Here is the complete format for the Kickoff Tournament:

Group Stage:

• Eleven teams will be seeded and split into three groups:
• Two groups will feature four teams, and 1 group will feature three teams
• The region’s top team, the highest-placing team at Champions 2023, will be placed in the group of 3 with a bye to the second round
• The remaining ten teams will be sorted into pools based on 2023 performance and drawn into the remaining ten slots
• Each group will feature a double elimination bracket with Best-of-3 matches.
• The winning team of each group will move onto the Playoff Stage
• The second-place team of each group will head to the Play-In stage

Play-In Stage:

• The three second-place teams face off in a round-robin format, with 1 team earning a spot in the Playoff Stage.

Playoff Stage:

• Four teams compete through a single elimination bracket, with the two finalist teams securing their place for Masters Madrid.
• The team coming from the Play-In stage will be placed on the opposite side of the bracket from the team from their original Group
• The kickoff winner will receive preferential seeding at Masters Madrid and 3 Championship points towards their qualification to Champions.

Season Format and Qualifications for Masters Shanghai and Champions

Immediately after Masters Madrid ends, Stage 1 of the International League will start from April to early May, and the top three teams from each region will be securing their spot for the next global event, VCT Masters Shanghai.

Once again, immediately after VCT Masters Shanghai ends, Stage 2 will begin, where the top 4 teams from each region will qualify for VCT Champions 2024. The winner of IL will be the #1 seed for the Champions from their region. The second and third-position team from the Stage 2 will also secure their spot for the Champions. The fourth team will be decided based on the Championship points they secure throughout the VCT Season.

In VCT Season 2024, a new points system is being introduced, which will be known as the Championship points. This point system is introduced to measure a team’s performance throughout the season and recognize consistency. Here is how the points system will work:

• Winning regional Kickoff, Masters Madrid, Masters Shanghai, Stage 1 Playoffs, and Stage 2 Playoffs will earn a team 3 points
• Each match win during Stage 1 & 2 will earn a team 1 point:
• There will be 10 regular season matches per team across Stage 1 & 2
• The first and second seed in each Stage Playoffs will receive a bye to the second round of competition and earn an extra point since those two teams will have access to one less match.