VALORANT is getting its second event to ever have an in-person audience at South Korea’s VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 1 Challengers playoffs, Riot Games Korea announced on Thursday. Fans can purchase tickets online for the event, which is to be held at Sangam Colosseum in Seoul, South Korea.
First Strike: Korea was the esport’s first event with fans in attendance before Seoul’s COVID-19 restrictions barred fans from attending the event.
You heard it right! #VCTKR Stage 1 Playoffs will have an audience!
Check the link below for details!
➡ https://t.co/G5EBAspl6U pic.twitter.com/kn63kfkiPY— VCT Pacific (@vctpacific) March 10, 2022
The Korean Challengers Playoffs start on March 16 in a double-elimination bracket, with a slot at the first masters event of the calendar. VCT Korea is just now finishing up its group stage play with only three more days of matches, as of Thursday. Only the top six teams from the group stage will make the playoffs.
As it currently stands, On Sla2ers, DRX, DAMWON Gaming, World Game Star, Maru Gaming and TeamT5 are slated to make the next stage. But, with three days of games and six more matches to go, the seventh and eight place squads Desperado and HolyMolly still have a chance to make it in.
Korea has been playing in a LAN setting since the start of the region’s main event. The region is one of the only VCT leagues in the world that currently competes in person, as many have opted to remain remote for at least their group stage matches.
How to fake defuse pic.twitter.com/vRsxwND25f
— stax (@staxVLRT) February 22, 2022
The amount of fans let into the venue is currently unknown. In 2021, South Korea’s league, League of Legends Champions Korea, had sporadic audience attendance. Only 10% of its capacity was full at a given time, or not at all depending on the number of cases in Seoul. In 2022, LoL Park has opened its doors once again with a live audience in attendance for every match this split so far.
Fans in South Korea, or at home, can watch the first matches of the Korea VCT Challengers Playoffs on March 16.
