Riot Games Announces Collegiate Esports Circuit for Valorant

Riot Games revealed details of “College Valorant” (CVAL), which is a new collegiate-level esports circuit that seeks to create the next generation of Valorant esports players. Currently, Riot Games is limiting the circuit to the United States and Canada and the publisher has not revealed any plans for expansion into other countries or regions. The circuit is open to college students only and it will take place across four sub-regions in North America.

Who is the College Valorant circuit for?

Players who want to participate in College Valorant must be currently enrolled in a degree program lasting at least two years and in academic good standing at the school. To be eligible, a participant needs to be either a full-time student or a part-time student that was a former full-time student within one academic year of their expected graduation.

There will be three tournaments over the course of fall, winter, and spring. Each tournament is separate, with their own registration process and a fresh bracket to play through. These events will culminate in a singular College VALORANT Championship event, with the final rounds to be held live in Los Angeles around May or June 2023.

The 1st and 2nd place teams per region from each tournament will automatically qualify for the College Valorant Championship, while the rest of the top 16 teams in each region will receive points based on their performance. The top two point earners from each region at the end of the Season will also qualify for the Championship, for a total of 32 teams in the CVAL Championship bracket.

Each tournament will feature a round robin group phase, in which each team in a group plays every other team once. The best performing team from each group will then qualify into a mixed elimination bracket, where the first two rounds will be single elimination, and the top 8 rounds will be Double Elimination. The size of the groups and bracket will depend on the number of teams entering each event, but each region’s tournament will be capped at 128 teams.

The Championship event will use the same format as Phase 2, with teams seeded such that teams from the same region cannot meet until the top 8 and the start of the double elimination. All matches will be best-of-three.

More details about the circuit will be revealed in August including rules, how the season will work, eligibility details, and more.