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The main event of the North American Valorant Challengers League is about to kick off on February 1 and end on March 14, 2023. After a long wait, the list of invited teams was finally released by the tournament organizers, Knights Arena, through their Twitter handle earlier today.
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The main event, or the Regular Season, will consist of 12 teams, of which six have been invited. These teams are TSM, FaZe, G2, The Guard, Shopify Rebellion, and M80. Four remaining spots will be filled by teams finishing at the top of the Open Qualifier, which will be held from 9-13 January, 2022. The last two spots will be contested for in the LCQ.
Valorant NA Challengers is going see some gruelling action
Each of the invited teams consists of top-tier Valorant players from the region. TSM, FaZe, The Guard, Shopify Rebellion were fan favorites from the earlier seasons of the Champions tour who failed to make it to the partnership stage.
TSM and Shopify Rebellion have built teams around their old rosters with minor changes. The former dropped Yassine "Subroza" Taoufik in exchange for another old player, James "hazed" Cobb, who will now lead the team. The Guard and FaZe have teased their roster on Twitter but are yet to confirm anything on that front.
G2 is moving to NA, with ex-Sentinels IGL Shahzeb "ShahZam" Khan leading its brand new roster. M80 is a brand new team consisting of four old Ghost Gaming squad members and Alexander "zander" Dituri from Version1.
Format and Dates of the Open Qualifiers and Last Chance Qualifiers
Of the teams playing the Open Qualifiers, Mitch "mitch" Semago led Oxygen Esports, and NSIC with Lucaz "fiziq" Blow are among the top favorites. The Open Qualifiers will be a tough path considering 256 teams will be fighting it out, first in a single elimination bracket followed by 32 teams going into a double elimination bracket from where four teams will qualify.
The Last Chance Qualifier, which will be held from January 17-22, 2023 will also have a similar format as the Open Qualifier. Only the two teams making it to the Grand Finals of this event will get a seat at the Regular Season and will keep their Ascension dreams alive for the year.
The format of the Regular Season of the North American Valorant Challengers League has not yet been announced; however, based on previous announcements, we know that two teams from here will qualify for the Ascension Tournament, which will be held from May 31 to June 10, 2023.
These teams will join the others who will qualify from the neighboring regions' Challengers Leagues in their final fight of the season, where the winner will get a two-year seat at the Valorant Champions Tour Americas League from 2024.
With such a long path ahead to secure a singular spot at the end of the road, teams will have to put their everything and more, and only time will tell who will come out on top.
