The VCT 2025 season is starting in January, and there are several changes coming with the new year. Valorant Esports has released the starting schedule and a bit on these changes.
VCT kicks off on January 11, with the start date for each region as follows:
- January 11: VCT CN
- January 15: VCT EMEA
- January 16: VCT Americas
- January 18: VCT Pacific
The International Leagues in each of these regions will send the top two teams to Masters Bangkok. This sets the tone and establishes the frontrunners for 2025 and will take place from Feb 20 to March 2.
Afterwards, Stage One goes from March 22 to April 25. This is where many of the format changes will be taking place. Both Stage One and Stage Two (which takes place between July 12 to August 15) will now split teams into two groups of six. They’ll compete in a round-robin format within the group, and the top two teams from each group will qualify for playoffs in Stage One. Based on the results from Stage One, Stage Two will mix the groups up to make better matchups.
Stage Two will only send the top two teams to playoffs. The other two spots will come from Championship Points. The point system is similar to last season, with a few changes to major event points. Now, Kickoffs grant points to the top four teams, and Masters Bangkok and Masters Toronto will give the top four and top six teams points respectively.
Maters Toronto will take place from June 7 to June 22, between the two Stages.
At the end of each stage, there will be playoffs in each region. These will now have eight teams, and they’ll compete in a double-elimination format to qualify for Valorant Champions (September 12 to October 5). Like last year, Champions will have a group stage with four groups of four teams that move on to an eight-team double-elimination Playoff.
Additionally, the regional Game Changers Championship will take place in November.
The VCT broke down the changes to the 2025 season in a video that fans can view below:
The VCT 2025 season last a bit longer than the 2024 season, which Riot felt like was too rushed. Now, teams will have more rest time between each tournament.
For more esports news, check out the Esports Awards 2024 winners and the latest game to be added to the Esports World Cup 2025, Call of Duty: Warzone.