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With VCT 2023 LOCK//IN's restricted format stirring a significant debate, Valorant esports head Leo Faria took the chance to share his thoughts in an intriguing podcast. He also revealed that several options were being considered and explained why single-elimination was the best way to kick off the season.
Valorant Esports Head clarifies why VCT 2023 LOCK//IN will feature a single-elimination format.
In a special podcast hosted by Rod "Slasher" Breslau, Spencer "Hiko" Martin, Sean "sgares" Gares, and Joshua "steel" Nissan, Leo Faria discussed the kickoff tournament's purpose and the factors that drove the decision to choose a single-elimination format.
Faria referred to LOCK/IN as a "one-time-only event" and emphasized the tournament's purpose. Firstly, LOCK/IN will be a medium to introduce all thirty partnered teams to the world and welcome the new VCT format.
The second purpose, as he explained, is to cover the gap in the season timeline, which was created due to the need for partners to travel to their boot camps and settle.
"we selected our partner teams last year which means they need time to move to the new Hub City. So, a lot of teams are moving from Latin America and Brazil to Los Angeles. Seeing it's from all over Europe moving to Berlin and Seoul. So, we couldn't start the season in January." - Leo Faria, Valorant esports head
Older VCT seasons which followed a different format, used to start right from January, which isn't the case with VCT 2023. Hence, the Valorant esports team wanted to host a large-scale tournament to fill the gap between January and the first international league split.
That said, LOCK//IN created further challenges for Faria and his team: to create fairgrounds and avoid creating an "incredibly long tournament."
"32 teams is a lot and we both don't want and can't have a tournament that is incredibly long. I think LOCK//IN as it is, is already a long tournament. It's big but we wouldn't go past that." - Leo Faria, Valorant esports head
Faria added that creating a long-going tournament will delay the season, which they wouldn't prefer.
He also posed against adding too many matchups in a single day and compressing the tournament's run time due to its negative effect on viewership and the production team.
"We can add more matches without adding more days but that means having a 12, 14 day broadcast, which is pretty brutal for viewers. Realistically, no one watch watches that. It's also pretty brutal on our production teams... we can't ask people to work 18 hours." - Leo Faria, Valorant esports head
Before deciding, the Valorant esports team also considered other tournament formats, including the popular GSL grouping and the widely-suggested Swiss format.
Even the idea of hosting best-of-one matchups while retaining the double-elimination format was considered. Faria expressed the team's reluctance toward best-of-one matchups and mentioned how it could introduce volatility.
We prioritized having all thirty teams... thirty two, including the two invited teams from China... So, having fewer matchups, like we don't have a lot of matchup diversity. You don't have one team playing a lot of teams but when a matchup happened it's quite significant. You know who's the best team and we have a more definitive winner. - Leo Faria, Valorant esports head
In every way, single elimination seemed to be the best option.
Why not multi-streaming?
In a follow-up question, Hiko asked why Riot chose to avoid multi-streaming more than one matchup as a solution, to which Valorant's Leo Faria had an apt answer ready.
Sports are all about personalities. People tune in because they like the pros or because they like the teams. When you have multi-streams you're forcing viewers to choose to watch match A or match B and if there's something really nice happening in matchup A and you're watching matchup B, you're simply not following that storyline. - Leo Faria, Valorant esports head
Faria states that multi-streaming matchups also fragment viewership, which Riot Games doesn't prefer. He also shared another primary reason for not choosing to double-stream: to give newly partnered teams a chance to grab more eyeballs.
The much-anticipated VCT 2023 LOCK//IN is set to host 32 professional Valorant teams in a single-elimination tournament starting in February. Riot Games announced sixteen intriguing pre-decided matchups, all of which will feature a best-of-three series.
That said, most of the fandom expressed disappointment with single elimination being the core rule for the tournament. Professionals and content creators also contributed to the discussion, but most of them stood against the decision.
Nevertheless, Riot's Leo Faria had a decent and elaborate explanation for going ahead with the controversial format.
