The climax of the 2022 Valorant Champions Tour is almost upon us with next month’s Valorant Champions event in Istanbul, Turkey, and now we know the full lineup of Valorant Champions teams that will be fighting for the crown with the conclusion of the VCT Last Chance Qualifiers.
This season will most likely be the last ever with an entirely open ecosystem as Valorant esports pivots to a franchise-style, three-league model for 2023. As a result, there has been an added desire to get to Champions this year for organisations that will most likely be unsuccessful in getting into the highly exclusive eight-to-ten-team leagues, as this would be their final opportunity to compete at a world championship and write their names into Valorant history.
The LCQs for North America, South America, EMEA, East Asia, and APAC have now all wrapped up, filling in the last spots for Valorant Champions and completing the tournament’s 16-team lineup.
In North America, 100 Thieves, buoyed by its dominant lower bracket run, trounced The Guard 3-0 in the final of its LCQ in convincing fashion.
In EMEA, Team Liquid came from behind to defeat 2021 Valorant Champions runner-up MC3 (previously Gambit Esports) 3-1 to secure its spot in Istanbul.
In the East Asia LCQ, EDward Gaming went its entire LCQ without dropping a map to qualify for Champions, and will become the first Chinese roster to appear at an international Valorant LAN tournament.
In APAC, Indonesia’s BOOM Esports squeaked through an incredibly tight final to its LCQ to book a spot at Champions.
And finally, in the South American LCQ that awards two spots at Champions, it was KRU Esports and FURIA that managed to qualify.
As a result, the final list of Valorant Champions 2022 teams looks like this:
- OpTic Gaming (NA)
- XSET (NA)
- 100 Thieves (NA)
- FunPlus Phoenix (EMEA)
- Fnatic (EMEA)
- Team Liquid (EMEA)
- Paper Rex (APAC)
- XERXIA (APAC)
- BOOM Esports (APAC)
- EDward Gaming (APAC)
- ZETA Division (APAC)
- DRX (APAC)
- LOUD (LATAM)
- Leviatan (LATAM)
- KRU Esports (LATAM)
- FURIA (LATAM)
Valorant Champions gets underway on September 9, with the grand final taking place on September 18. 2021 world champion Acend has not qualified to defend its title, so a new Valorant esports champion is guaranteed.