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Riot Games released the Valorant Champions cosmetic bundle last year to boost the prize pool of its first-ever world championship event. The bundle was available for around 20 days and has reportedly generated $18.7 million in revenue. Riot Games revealed at the time that half of the revenue would be evenly split between all teams that participated in Valorant Champions. 16 teams are expected to receive $585,000 USD each.
What is the Valorant Champions Bundle?
The Valorant Champions bundle was released on 24th November 2021 for a limited time and it included the Champions Vandal skin, three-player cards designed around the “Die for You” music video, the Champion title, and the Valorant Karambit. Valorant fans supported their favorite Valorant teams by purchasing the limited edition Champions bundle. 50% of the revenue from the Champions Bundle was to be split equally between all teams that qualified for Valorant Champions.
How are teams distributing the revenue with their players?
With Riot Games earning $18.7 million USD in revenue via sales from the Champions bundle, teams are set to receive a total of $9.35 million USD, with each team receiving $585,000 USD. According to a report by Upcomer, the splits between the teams and their players are as follows:
EMEA
Acend: 75% team/25% players
Fnatic: 80% team/20% players
Team Liquid: 70% team/30% players
North America
Team Envy (now OpTic Gaming): 50% team/50% players
Sentinels: 50% team/50% players
Cloud9: 25% team/75% players
Latin America
Furia: 60% team/40% players
Vivo Keyd: 20% team/80% players
Asia-Pacific
X10: 100% team/0% players
Team Secret: 70% team/30% players
Vision Strikers: 70% team/30% players
X10 Esports is the only team that is not sharing the Champions skins revenue with its players. While Vivo Keyd is offering a massive 80% share to its players. Cloud9 is parting with 75% of the proceeds by giving it to the players. Seven teams are taking a majority share of the proceeds while Team Envy/Optic Gaming is offering a 50/50 split between itself and its players.
Valorant is not the only game to boost its prize money with sales of limited-time cosmetic bundles. Valve’s Dota 2 generates tens of millions of dollars via its The International cosmetic bundles and Apex Legends adopted the model as well for its Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) events. Riot Games could potentially have an even bigger prize pool this year for its world championship following its success with the Champions bundle in 2021.
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