Valorant announced its first official sponsored tournament “First Strike” in early September, with tournament events starting in late October. This will be the first set of tournaments from Riot Games since Valorant’s release in early June. Since then, there have been several events that have been sponsored by esports organizations and companies. These events were meant to evolve Valorant’s esports scene organically without Riot Games’ influence.
First Strike will officially kick off on October 26 in an open set of 128 tournaments produced by Nerd Street Gamers. NSG has sponsored two other Valorant events prior to the last one being co-sponsored by Renegades. They have quickly become a stable sponsor in the Valorant competitive scene and continue to produce content. The First Strike tournament will eventually dwindle to a pool of 16 teams who will compete in the first qualifier.
The top four teams from those 16 will advance to the main event while the next top four will advance to the second open tournament. That way, the runner-up four teams will have another chance to advance to the main event. Any additional teams can re-enter the second qualifier for another shot.
Second qualifier for Valorant First Strike
Valorant will house two qualifying tournaments to produce the top eight teams from the North American region to compete at First Strike. While Nerd Street Gamers sponsors the first qualifier, Engine Media (UMG) will sponsor the second. The second qualifier will begin on November 11, with the top 12 teams advancing to the next round of qualifiers.
Like the Nerd Street Gamer qualifiers, the top four teams will join the other four teams at First Strike. From there, the top eight teams will compete for a $100,000 prize pool and be crowned the best team in North America. All tournaments will stream on Twitch and YouTube via the NA Valorant channel.
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