Riot Games has announced that the highly anticipated Valorant Champions 2023 tournament will take place in Los Angeles, marking the first time an international Valorant event will be held in North America.
Event Details
The event will run from August 6th to August 26th and occur across two iconic Los Angeles venues. The early rounds will be held at the Shrine Auditorium, while the final rounds featuring the top four teams will be held at the Kia Forum.
Participating Teams
The tournament will feature 16 teams from North America, Brazil, Latin America, EMEA, and Asia, with the allocation of slots per region still unclear at this time.
The choice of Los Angeles as the host city comes as no surprise, given the game's growing popularity in North America. Additionally, the VCT Americas League, which kicks off on March 26th, is also being held in LA. During the announcement of the Valorant Champions 2023 tournament, Riot Games also unveiled the newest agent, Gekko, an initiator based in Los Angeles.
Statements from Riot Games
Anna Donlon, Senior Vice President & Studio Head of Valorant, expressed excitement about bringing the tournament to Los Angeles. She stated,
“With Riot's headquarters being in LA and a lot of us being from LA, we were really excited to bring an event there.”
This is where champions are made.
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) March 4, 2023
VALORANT Champions 2023 is coming to Los Angeles in August. It all starts at the Shrine Expo Hall and ends at the Kia Forum. Get the details with Anna and Leo. pic.twitter.com/YhCOrboRnc
The previous Valorant Champions event took place in Istanbul, where LOUD emerged as the champions after beating OpTic Gaming in the grand final. The tournament had over 1.5 million concurrent viewers, which remains Valorant's highest peak viewership to date.
With the event set to take place in just a few months, fans of Valorant are eagerly anticipating the competition and looking forward to seeing which teams will emerge victorious in what promises to be an exciting tournament. The first international Valorant event in North America is expected to draw a large audience and showcase some of the best teams in the world.
