The 2021 Valorant Champions was an esports tournament for the first-person shooter video game Valorant. It was the first-ever edition of VALORANT Champions, the culmination of Valorant Champions Tour, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer Riot Games. The tournament was held from December 1 to 12 in Berlin, Germany. Sixteen teams qualified for the tournament based on their result via 2021 VALORANT Masters: Stage 3, the regional Circuit Point standings in the year, and the regional Last Chance Qualifiers.

"Die For You" was the tournament's theme song, put together by Grabbitz, while Zedd, and Dabin, produced their own respective remix versions of the theme song.

won the Valorant world championship after defeating Gambit Esports in the finals by a score of 3–2. Aleksander "zeek" Zygmunt from Acend was named the tournament MVP.

Venues Berlin was the city chosen to host the competition. The Group Stage was held at the Marlene-Dietrich-Halle, while the Semifinals and Finals was held at the Verti Music Hall. Berlin, GermanyGroup StageQuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinalsMarlene-Dietrich-HalleVerti Music Hall

Format

Tournament spots A total of 16 teams qualified for Champions. The winner of the Stage 3 Masters (Gambit Esports from EMEA) automatically qualified for the event, 11 teams from North America, EMEA, Brazil, Latin America, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia qualified through circuit points, and four teams qualified through four "Last Chance Qualifiers", held in North America (included teams from Oceania), EMEA, South America (Brazil + Latin America) and Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, South Asia and Southeast Asia) Qualification pathRegionsNorth AmericaSouth AmericaAsia-PacificBrazilLatin AmericaJapanS.KoreaSoutheast AsiaRegional Circuit Points (11 spots)2221112Last Chance Qualifier (4 spots)1111VCT Masters Stage 3 champion (1 spot)10Total (16 spots)4345

Qualified teams Region Team Qualified by North America Sentinels North America Regional circuit points Team Envy Cloud9 North America Last Chance Qualifier EMEA Gambit Esports Stage 3 Masters champion EMEA Regional circuit points Fnatic Team Liquid EMEA Last Chance Qualifier Brazil Team Vikings Brazil Regional circuit points Vivo Keyd FURIA Esports South America Last Chance QualifierLatin AmericaKRÜ EsportsLatin America Regional circuit points Southeast Asia X10 CRIT Southeast Asia Regional circuit points Team Secret FULL SENSE Asia-Pacific Last Chance Qualifier South Korea Vision Strikers Korea Regional circuit points Japan Crazy Raccoon Japan Regional circuit points

Group stage The group stage ran from December 1 to 7, 2022. Groups were decided based on teams' achievements in competitions of Valorant Challengers and Valorant Masters, circuit point, and estimated strength for each region. All 16 teams are divided into 4 groups of four teams each playing in a GSL-style double-elimination format. Games were held in a best-of-three series, and only the top two teams in each group qualified for the playoffs.

Brackets

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout stage The knockout stage began on December 8, culminating in the finals on December 12. Eight teams were drawn into a single-elimination bracket. The top-seeded team of each group was drawn against the second-seeded team of a different group. The teams from same group were on opposite sides of the bracket, meaning they could play each other until the Finals. All matches were best-of-three, except for the finals, which was best-of-five.

Bracket

Acend vs. Team Secret Acend vs. Team Secret ScoresTeamScoreMapScoreTeamAcend13Icebox8Team SecretAcend13Breeze6Team SecretAcend–Split–Team Secret

Team Liquid vs. Cloud9 Team Liquid vs. Cloud9 ScoresTeamScoreMapScoreTeamTeam Liquid13Bind10Cloud9Team Liquid13Ascent11Cloud9Team Liquid–Breeze–Cloud9

Gambit Esports vs. X10Crit Gambit Esports vs. X10Crit ScoresTeamScoreMapScoreTeamGambit Esports13Fracture7X10CritGambit Esports7Ascent13X10CritGambit Esports13Breeze7X10Crit

Fnatic vs. KRÜ Esports Fnatic vs. KRÜ Esports ScoresTeamScoreMapScoreTeamKRÜ Esports15Haven13FnaticKRÜ Esports6Icebox13FnaticKRÜ Esports13Split8Fnatic

Semifinals

Acend vs. Team Liquid Acend vs. Natus Vincere ScoresTeamScoreMapScoreTeamAcend13Bind6Team LiquidAcend13Split5Team LiquidAcend–Ascent–Team Liquid

Gambit Esports vs. KRÜ Esports Gambit Esports vs. KRÜ Esports ScoresTeamScoreMapScoreTeamGambit Esports13Breeze8KRÜ EsportsGambit Esports7Ascent13KRÜ EsportsGambit Esports18Bind16KRÜ Esports

Finals Acend vs. Gambit Esports ScoresTeamScoreMapScoreTeamAcend11Breeze13Gambit EsportsAcend13Ascent7Gambit EsportsAcend3Fracture13Gambit EsportsAcend14Icebox12Gambit EsportsAcend13Split8Gambit Esports

Prize pool

PlaceTeamGSQFSFFinalsPrize (%)Prize (USD)1st 2–02–02–03–235%$350,0002nd Gambit Esports2–02–12–12–315%$150,0003rd–4th KRÜ Esports2–12–11–29%$90,000 Team Liquid2–02–00–25th–8th Team Secret2–10–24%$40,000 Cloud9 Blue2–10–2 X10 CRIT2–11–2 Fnatic2–01–29th–12th Team Envy1–22%$20,000 Sentinels1–2 Team Vikings1–2 Vision Strikers1–213th–16th Keyd Stars0–2 Furia Esports0–2 Crazy Raccoon0–2 FULL SENSE0–2

Notes

References