Riot Announces First Strike Valorant Tournament
| Tags: Valorant
| Author Malik Shelp
Valorant’s Ignition Series ended a month ago, and amid all of the LoL World Championship excitement, Riot has unveiled yet another tournament series.
Riot Games has announced its first official Valorant tournament, a monumental leap for the fresh 5v5 competitive shooter. Valorant’s summer success was in part due to the numerous third-party competitions held every month. Riot’s brand new tournament series, First Strike, will expand on the competitive Valorant experience with first-hand support from the developers. First Strike will host regional qualifiers across North America, Europe, CIS, Turkey, Asia, Oceania, Brazil, and the Middle East. Following these qualifiers, each region will host a First Strike Finals, produced by Riot Games themselves.
What’s next for esports after the Ignition Series? Executive Producer @RiotSuperCakes, the Head of Global Esports John Needham, and Senior Esports Director @RiotMagus share details about the First Strike Tournament. pic.twitter.com/MsOG9KQbFa
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) September 23, 2020
“Esports remains one of the best investments we can make to support our community for the long term,” said Anna Donlon, Executive Producer of Valorant. “As we’ve already seen from the Ignition Series, there’s a huge demand and hunger for Valorant to be played at a professional level, and we’re so excited to be starting that journey with fans, players, and organizations. As a development team, supporting the competitive world of Valorant is one of our top priorities, and we are committed to this journey.”
So far, Valorant’s first year has been successful, but we have yet to see Riot host a first-party tournament for the emerging esport. For the longest time, Riot has allowed esports organizations and third-party tournament organizers to host Valorant competitions, experimenting in format. First Strike will be Riot’s chance to host a standardized tournament across the globe, opening the door for emerging competitors to take on the big dogs of their region. The Finals will take place Dec 3-6, and be open to the winners of the regional qualifiers beginning in October.
Malik specializes in esports photography, videography, video editing, and graphic design. He has also written Overwatch and Dota articles for over 2 years for DBLTAP and other esports outlets. You can learn more about Malik on our About page.