What’s up VALORANT players and VCT fans! Today, we're thrilled to unveil our first-ever VCT team-branded cosmetics, the VCT Team Capsules!
Team skins are something players have been asking for a long time, and something we’ve been eager to deliver on. We created these Capsule collections with the goal of combining your love for VALORANT and your favorite VCT teams into one awesome package; we’re excited to finally give you the ability to rep your fandom in game.
It goes beyond being a cool skin that is worthy of being in your collection (although that's still a part of it). It's about creating a vibrant ecosystem where fans and teams thrive together. Last year, as a result of players’ purchasing in-game VCT Collections, we shared over $33 million USD with our partnered teams.
2024 is going to be a great year for the VCT – our partner teams are fully established, we’ve welcomed four new ascension teams, and VCT CN is finally here. With the full ecosystem online, our aim with team capsules is to empower fans to directly support their favorite teams. With teams earning 50% of profits from their respective Capsules, you now have the ability to invest in the future of your favorite orgs and players - one Capsule at a time.
From the jump, we knew that the Capsules needed to accurately represent our 44 VCT International League partner teams. These couldn’t just look cool - they also had to embody the spirit of our teams. We kicked off the development process around the start of the 2023 season, and have been working collaboratively with teams for most of the past year; soliciting feedback and creative input to make sure their brands and unique identities shine through. We’re especially excited about the Player Cards, which were designed by the teams themselves in collaboration with VALORANT artists. Player Cards are one of our most expressive content types, and we think that these cards do an awesome job showcasing teams’ distinct personalities, legacies, and community memes.
In terms of weapon selection, we’re starting off with the Classic which is the quintessential piece of kit for any VALORANT player – much like the jersey is to an athlete. It’s the first item you’re equipped with to start playing and it’s almost always in your inventory.
When determining features, we talked with pros about what matters most during the heat of competitive play; good Firing Audio SFX and Kill Banners came up consistently as must-haves for an S-tier skin. From there, our audio team created a soundscape aimed towards putting players into the headspace for clutches and big plays.
Another one of our goals for the Classic was to create something that felt impactful both in game and on broadcast, which led us to develop the entirely new augmented reality (AR) feature. On Inspect, the team name and logo will pop out from the side of the weapon, allowing players to flex their team identity. We think it’s going to act as one hell of an exclamation point during big moments and can’t wait to see players flash their AR inspect to punctuate a big clutch on the world stage.
Each capsule is a treasure trove of team spirit, featuring:
Throughout the 2024 VCT Season, you can purchase Capsules in VALORANT through the brand new in-game Esports Store - just go to the Store page and click on the “Esports” tab. Capsules will go live in most regions on Feb 21 alongside the launch of patch 8.03, or more accurately:
Capsules will be available throughout the VCT season and leave the Esports Store shortly after Champions concludes.
Make sure to tune into the International League Kickoff where your favorite teams will fight to qualify for the first international event of the year - Masters Madrid!
Team Capsules are only possible as a result of your continued support for our teams and players. Thanks for showing up, spending your hard-earned money on VCT Collections, and allowing us to share over $60 million with teams since we started back in 2021. We’re excited to see how you all respond to the Team Capsules and will be on the lookout for ways to evolve esports cosmetics in VALORANT going forward.
Catch you in game -- we’re excited to see you rep your team, flex your inspects, and find out who will etch themselves into the VCT history books.