VALORANT Champions group stage explained

VALORANT Champions groups have been revealed after the drawing process concluded this morning.

In the group stage of Champions, teams will complete in a four-team, double-elimination bracket to determine which two teams will come out on top from each group. The first round in each group will put teams from Pool 1 against teams from Pool 4, and teams from Pool 2 will face teams from Pool 3. These Pools were determined by circuit points and the teams that qualified through the various Last Chance Qualifier tournaments.

Pool 1: NA #1, EMEA #1, KR, M3 Winner

Pool 2: NA #2, EMEA #2, LATAM, BR #1

Pool 3: NA LCQ, EMEA LCQ, SEA #1, JP

Pool 4: BR 2, SEA 2, SA LCQ, APAC LCQ

Each team in each pool was randomly drawn into one of the four groups labeled A through D. If, at any point, a team was drawn into a group that already had a team from that region, they were moved to the next alphabetically sequential group. However, if the team was the final team to be drawn from their pool, they were moved backward through the groups until a valid group was found. Since Pool 4 continues two Brazilian and Southeast Asian teams, the number one seed for Brazil and Southeast Asian cannot be placed in the same group.

Champions knockout stage

After the group stage, another random draw will seed the knockout stage which will consist of the remaining eight teams. The four teams who have advanced out of their group in first place will be randomly assigned to a second place team from a different group. From there, the teams will play through an eight-team elimination bracket.

This group stage to knockout stage format is the same format used during the most recent international tournament, Masters Berlin. At Masters Berlin, the teams were split up into various groups depending on their regional ranking. From there, they were eliminated until eight teams remained, which started the knockout stage.