[UPDATE] Riot Games considering a South American VCT league for 2027; franchising a possilibity

According to a report from Brazil, developer Riot Games is considering a split in its VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) Americas region, aiming at creating a separate league for its Brazilian and Latin American organisations.

Update:
In response to a summary of this news, Leo Faria, Global Head of VALORANT Esports, has publicly called the reports of a new league “false”, though insists that “changes are coming in 2027”.

“This is top of mind for us and changes are coming in 2027 to address it. But this report is false.”

South American VCT league may come in 2027

As per a report by ATUALIZADO, Riot is considering splitting the VCT Americas region to create a fresh league for its Brazilian and South American teams. This could see 5 of the current 10 partnered teams leaving in order to move down south.

Notably, the ATUALIZADO report claims that the new league could follow a franchise model with fixed participants, alongside open slots for promotion/relegation, akin to the current system used in League of Legends’ LTA South in the same region.

A franchised model would require its participants to buy into the league, with revenue later shared back with the teams in the expectation that the payouts will exceed the initial fee. Such a model has been utilised in League of Legends — Riot’s other massive esports title — for years, though the performance of this model has been questioned.

The move is said to be something Riot is considering once the current VCT partnership cycle finishes at the end of 2026. This period will allow the company to make sweeping changes to its circuit, with Leo Faria, Global Head of VALORANT Esports, having already indicated an intent to create more “ecosystem moments”, in particular “at a regional level”.

Closer to fans

A persistent issue for some VCT Americas organisations has been the considerable distance between their regionalised fanbases and the LA focus of their competition. For sides from South America, this has caused difficulties in activating their fans in-person, given that teams are required to compete in the United States.

There are currently five teams competing in the Americas that are based in South America:

• MIBR (Brazil)
• KRÜ Esports (Argentina)
• Leviatán (Argentina)
• LOUD (Brazil)
• FURIA (Brazil)

Other established organisations said to be interested in joining a new league include RED Canids, LOS, and Team Solid, all thought to have been investing in building strong rosters in Brazil’s tier two competition with the hopes of standing out when it comes to future franchise applications.

The anti-LTA

Such a move to break up the Americas into a North and South league, while perhaps welcomed by some parts of the VALORANT fanbase, will almost certainly frustrate League of Legends fans who have lamented the joining of those same regions within their game.

The merger between North and South America and subsequent creation of the cross-regional League of Legends Championship of The Americas (LTA) has been criticised on all sides, with the removal of previous LCS and CBLOL branding — along with the complete closure of the LLA — thought to have played a significant role in denting viewership and causing confusion for casual fans that had followed the respective leagues for years.

More recently, community figures have gone so far as to call for a complete return to the previous brands, while the LTA has also been criticised for its lack of actual cross-regional play.