Valorant Weekly: New Teams, First Strike and Competitive Policies

This week’s Valorant weekly is all about new developments in the competitive scene. Three Valorant rosters were signed over the weekend to premier Western organizations. Earlier in the week, Riot Game announced the Valorant competitive policies and essential info about Valorant First Strike.

Lets get right right into it.

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Valorant First Strike

First Strike will be the first tournament series directly organized by Riot Games. The goal is to crown the regional champions in each Valorant competitive region. An estimated $500,000 was allotted between 11 competitive regions. The bulk of the prize funds is reserved for two main events in North America and Europe, while the remaining regions have substantially smaller prize pools.

While we have a dedicated wiki and Valorant News to follow each region individually in First Strike, there are some general information relevant right now.

Valorant Competitive Policies

With First Strike soon approaching, Riot has implemented a concrete set of rules for the competitive scene. These rules will apply to all Riot approved events, with players and their teams required to agree as a condition of entry. Riot has also revealed the existence of its VALORANT anti-cheat team who will be tasked with maintaining competitive integrity in the pro scene.

The official policies and rules are extremely long, so we’ve narrowed down the most important and interesting ones you’ve got to know.

To enter any official or Riot sanctioned event, players must be above the age of 16. In countries where 16 is under the age of independence, players between 16 and the age of independence can continue to compete under the provision of parental or guardian approval. Additionally, you must be at least Immortal 1 in Valorant Ranked play if you wish to compete in official events. The official rules state players must either currently be, or previously held Immortal 1 “during the preceding Act” (likely act rank). This should pose no problem as many competitive players hover around Immortal 3 or Radiant.

As with established Riot Games leagues, least three of the five players on a starting roster should be “residents” of a team’s home region. Additionally, rosters can list three substitutes as part of their official line-up.

Finally, Ownership of qualification slots will belong to the team owners, not the players. However, to prevent sale of slots, qualification is only retained a team has three of the original players who qualified for the event.

Competitive integrity parts remain the same as all sports / esports guidelines.

• Match fixing – Members cannot offer, agree or conduct actions who aim to unfairly alter a match’s outcome .
• Bribery / gifts – Members cannot offer or accept gifts from other competitive entities such as tournament officials and members from other teams.
• Gambling – Members are unable to place bets, or give information to parties that would influence their bets.

Valorant Teams & New Rosters

Three “new” teams were signed by established organizations over the past week.

First up, Guild Esports – the organization most famously known by its investor David Beckham, has signed its first roster. The Swedish roster of team Bonk is now officially competing under the Guild Esports banner. The team is being instantly ranked as top 3 in Europe, after the bonk boys placed 2nd only to G2 Esports at both LVL Clash 2 and Mandatory.gg Cup.

Team MAJKL, the first Valorant all-female squad was finally signed as well. Cloud9 was the organization with the most enticing offer for the winners of the FTW Summer Showdown. As C9 now holds two Valorant rosters, the MAJKL squad is going to compete at First Strike under the Cloud9 White name.

Finally, ORDER is also getting into the Oceanic Valorant scene by signing the players of Team Launch. They will battle at the Rise of Valour qualifier for a slot at First Strike Oceania. Given that League of Legends in Oceania is pretty much dead after Riot closed their Sydney offices. We can expect all of the former OPL organizations to quickly make a move to Valorant.

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