Now that the group stage has wrapped up, the remaining eight teams in Seoul have advanced into the playoff round of this year’s Valorant Champions event. More than $2 million is still on the line, and out of those eight teams, one will walk away with a staggering prize worth $1 million.
Last year, Evil Geniuses scooped the number-one prize in Los Angeles, with Paper Rex falling into second place. Unfortunately, this won’t be a back-to-back win or a redemption event – EG failed to qualify for this year’s Valorant Champions and Paper Rex just got knocked out of the tournament by EDG.
Valorant Champions Playoffs Schedule
Four monumental matches have been scheduled to open up the playoffs. It’s a double elimination bracket, which means every starting team will have the chance to lose twice before they’re removed from the tournament – once in the upper bracket and then again in the lower bracket.
Here are the opening fixtures for the Valorant Champs playoffs stage:
- DRX vs. Sentinels (August 14)
- Trace Esports vs. EDward Gaming (August 14)
- G2 Esports vs. Leviatán (August 15)
- Team Heretics vs. Fnatic (August 15)
It’s anyone’s game, but presently, the frontrunners to win the number-one prize are DRX, closely followed by Sentinels. DRX is playing on home turf, and that advantage gave the squad a considerable boost in the group stage, with the team becoming one of the four to not lose a match.
Many are now backing the underdog side of Trace Esports, a Chinese organisation that pulled off a big win against Leviatán earlier this week to secure the team’s first-ever spot in the Valorant Champs playoffs round.
I’m backing Fnatic, the UK-based organisation that recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. It was just a few weeks ago that the team brought home a $100,000 prize during the EMEA Stage 2 tournament, and last year, the squad grabbed a second-place finish at Valorant Champs 2023 after winning VCT Masters Toyko.
For more Insider Gaming Esports, check out the news that Gen.G got booted from Valorant Champs
GO EDG