Every year, VALORANT Champions serves as the grand finale of the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) season, crowning the world’s best team. This event sets the stage for regional rivalries meeting international ambition, and only the very best teams can make it to the event. But just how do teams qualify for VALORANT Champions 2025?
Back in 2024, Riot Games introduced a streamlined and balanced qualification system, one that rewards both recent peaks and season-long consistency. Here’s a detailed breakdown of how teams qualify.
VALORANT Champions 2025 Format Overview: 16 Teams, 4 Regions
VALORANT Champions 2025 will feature a total of 16 teams, evenly distributed across the four VCT regions:
- Americas
- EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa)
- Pacific
- China
Each region will send four representatives, ensuring a globally balanced lineup where every major territory gets equal representation on the game’s world stage. All 16 teams will qualify directly based on their regional performance, so there will be no wildcards or international qualifiers.
Two Clear Paths to Secure VALORANT Champs Qualification
In 2025, the road to Champions is clearly defined. Teams in each region can qualify through two distinct paths:
Path #1: Reach the Stage 2 Grand Final
The most direct path to Champions is through your region’s Stage 2 playoffs – the final tournament of the VCT regular season.
The top two teams in each region’s Stage 2 tournament, meaning both the winner and the runner-up, will earn automatic qualification for VALORANT Champions 2025. In other words, reach the Grand Final, and you’ll book your ticket.
This means that a deep playoff run at just the right time can be enough to secure a ticket to Paris. It raises the stakes of the Stage 2 tournament dramatically, far more than those of Stage 1. This essentially turns Stage 2 into a do-or-die moment for many teams.
Recency Bias and Competitive Form
Qualifying through Stage 2 has a strategic advantage, indicating that a team is peaking at the right time. In esports, this is often referred to as recency bias – the perception that teams with the most recent success are stronger or more dangerous.
With this system, teams who have had a terrible start to the year and failed to qualify for international events can redeem themselves if they can prove their worth at the right time.
Path #2: Qualify Through Championship Points
For teams that don’t make the Stage 2 final, there’s still a second path that rewards those who have shown season-long consistency.
- After the Stage 2 top two are determined, each region will go back and evaluate the Championship Points leaderboard.
- The two highest-ranked teams, based on points and not already qualified, will secure the remaining slots.
So, if you’re G2 Esports – a team that’s qualified for every international event, consistently placed in the top four, and racked up points across all the events – you’re in a strong position. Even if you fall short in your Stage 2 playoffs, your Championship Points total could still carry you through. In fact, G2 is the only team to have guaranteed a spot at Champions at the time of writing.
It’s a system built to ensure that the elite teams who show up all year don’t miss Champions due to one off-day in the playoffs.
What Are Championship Points?
Championship Points are Riot’s way of rewarding sustained success throughout the season. Each region has its own point distribution system (e.g., Americas Points, Pacific Points), but the logic remains the same.
Teams are awarded points for making deep runs at regional and international leagues. This system ensures that a team’s full-year performance is recognized – not just one Cinderella playoff run.
No More Last Chance Qualifiers?
That’s right – LCQs are no longer part of the equation for VALORANT Champions. In previous years, the LCQs were a spicy way to give teams one final opportunity to fight for a spot at Champions.
However, in 2024, Riot removed the system from the qualification process entirely. Instead, Stage 2 has essentially become the substitute for them. This also means fewer matches late in the season, so the reduced player fatigue ensures all teams can bring their A-game to Champs.
In Summary: How do teams qualify for VALORANT Champions?
To keep things simple – each region will send four teams to VALORANT Champions 2025. Here’s how those slots break down:
Automatic Qualification (2 teams from each region)
- Finish in the top 2 of your region’s Stage 2 playoffs (reach the Grand Final).
Championship Points Qualification (2 teams from each region)
- Be among the top 2 in Championship Points, with Stage 2 finalists excluded.
Together, these two paths ensure that the teams headed to Paris are either:
- In peak form, having proven themselves in the final stretch
- Or consistent top performers who have earned their spot over the entire year.
