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After Germany and Turkey, Riot Games will organize this year's Valorant Champions in the United States. According to the official announcement, the third iteration of the hallowed annual esports tournament will be held in Los Angeles, California, in August 2023. The news will surely delight American fans of the popular competitive FPS shooter title.
Valorant Champions is the crowning event of the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT), where teams from around the world book their berths through various tournaments. The past two Champions events featured their fair share of high-octane gameplay, nail-biting finishes, controversies, and plenty more.
This article jots down all the available information for this year's Champions event, including the venue, schedule, and more.
Valorant Champions 2023 is coming to Los Angeles, California
The official video announcement of the VCT Champions 2023 mentions:
"From the loud, dazzling streets of Sao Paolo to the neon-lit skyscrapers of Tokyo. All of these roads lead to one city, where superstars are born."
As already mentioned above, this year's Valorant Champions will be held in Los Angeles, California, from August 6 to August 26. It has also been revealed that the event will be divided between two locations across the city. The opening stages of the tournament will be held at the Shrine Expo Hall, from August 6 to August 20.
The 16 qualified teams will battle amongst themselves there to qualify for the next part of the tournament, which will be held at a different venue. For the latter stages, fans will make their way to the KIA Forum. Touted as Valorant's "biggest Finals venue yet," the location will play host to the tournament from August 24 to August 26.
The remaining behemoths will wage war at the venue, "home to Hollywood, home to Champions," to pick up the title of this year's winners along with the lion's share of the event's prize pool. The official video announcement posted on the Twitter channel for the game also acknowledged the more global appeal of VCT in the current year.
VCT Champions 2021 was won by Acend, although they did not get a chance to defend their title the following year as they failed to qualify.
The winner's title for the 2022 iteration of the event was clinched by the Brazilian outfit LOUD. They are currently going toe-to-toe against Fnatic in the Grand Finals of the VCT 2023: Lock//In Sao Paulo.
In other news, fans of Riot Games' FPS title have been drip-fed information about the upcoming playable character, titled Gekko, who will take up the mantle of Agent 22 once he debuts in-game. While there have been a number of reports regarding his abilities, the trailer did showcase that he will have various creatures in his arsenal.
