Diving Into the 2025 VALORANT Competitive Season: Global Leagues and Events
The 2025 season of VALORANT Esports is set to begin in January, and with it come new changes, new teams, and new formats! New here? We've got you. Here is everything you need to know to get prepared for the start of VCT. With new teams earning promotion across EMEA, Pacific, CN, and Americas — this season brings our biggest year of competition ever.
Meet the Competitors
In 2025, teams will compete across a series of International League matches and Global Events to secure qualification for Champions Paris where the next VALORANT World Champion will be crowned.
We’ll get things started with Kickoff tournaments in each International League, taking place between January 11th and February 9th.
International League Kickoff Start Dates:
January 15 - VCT EMEA
January 11 - VCT CN
January 16 - VCT Americas
January 18 - VCT Pacific
The top two teams from each league advance directly to Masters Bangkok where we’ll establish the frontrunners for the 2025 season.
Next, we head into the first of two International League Stages. The top three finishers from each League’s Stage 1 Playoff will compete at Masters Toronto. Following Masters Toronto, it's time for International League Stage 2.
Each league's top two teams in Stage 2 Playoffs, plus two more teams based on Championship Points, will join the competition in Paris.
What’s New for VCT 2025?
We listened and are introducing a number of changes for the 2025 season, some of which we announced during Champions!
Today we’re going to provide the full details of the season and address the “why” behind our choices. The 2024 season was short and had tight turnaround between competitions, which resulted in a difficult cadence for top performing teams making it to global events and pushed lower performing teams out of contention too early in the year. The new calendar will ease the issues on both ends. We’re glad to introduce an expanded calendar in 2025, with the season now starting in January and concluding early October.
In 2025 each league is growing to 12 teams, which allows for better formats. At the top of the season, kickoff will feature a full 12-team double-elimination bracket format, with the top 4 teams from the previous year (the ones who made it to Champions) getting a bye to the second round.
As we move into the main part of the season, we aim to give all teams a healthy baseline number of matches while maximizing the number of exciting and high stakes matches for the best performing teams. In 2025, we’ll see an increase of 12.5% in the number of total matches at International Leagues, while maintaining the floor at 12 matches per team (2 at kickoff, 5 per stage). The average number of matches will grow to ~18, and the maximum to 23 (5 at kickoff, 5 per stage, 4 per playoffs). That’s all before global events.
The New Championship Point System
Similar to last year, Championship points will be distributed across every stage and competition. Our goal is to make sure all parts of the season have high-stakes and are of consequence. To address this we’re making two important changes: deeper points distribution at Masters and Playoffs and making stages self-contained, giving all teams a fresh start midway through the season.
Regular season matches will continue to give 1 point per regular season win, while major events like Kickoff, Playoffs, and Masters will now reward multiple teams. The IL playoffs and Kickoff will grant points to the top 4 teams, while Masters Bangkok and Masters Toronto will recognize the top 4 and top 6 teams with points.
We’re also changing the qualification paths to Champions. Now, two teams will qualify from stage 2 playoffs (all teams have a chance to grab these two slots, no matter how you performed earlier in the season); and two teams qualify from Championship Points (valuing strong results from early in the season).
The important change to acknowledge here is that we’re moving away from a full round-robin spanning Stage 1 and 2. Each stage will now divide teams into two groups of six, competing in a round-robin format within their group, with the top 4 teams from each group qualifying to playoffs. Groups will be shuffled for stage 2, aiming for better balanced matchups leading up to the final playoffs of the season.
Playoffs will also expand to 8 teams, keeping more teams alive and in the hunt for an extended period of time. That means 2/3 of the league will have a significantly longer season, and more chances to qualify for global events. Playoffs will move to a double-elimination format, with the top 2 teams getting a bye to the second round, and the bottom 2 teams starting in the lower bracket (with a 0-1 record).
The formats for global events will remain similar to the past season.
Master Bangkok will start with an 8-team swiss stage followed by a 4-team double elimination playoffs.
Masters Toronto will start with an 8-team swiss stage (with the number one seed from each IL getting a bye to the next stage), followed by an 8-team double elimination playoffs.
Champions will start with a Group Stage featuring four 4-team groups, followed by an 8-team double elimination playoffs.
48 teams. 3 international events. 1 World Champion. Get ready for VCT 2025!
WHERE TO FOLLOW THE VCT
Make sure to follow the official VALORANT Esports social channels for additional information about 2025 VCT Season:
Twitter/X: @valorantesports
Facebook: /valorantesports
Instagram: @valorantesports
TikTok: @valorantesports
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/valorant
Photos from the Event: https://www.flickr.com/photos/valorantesports/
Official VALORANT Esports News: valorantesports.com/news
