VCT LOCK//IN Schedule and Format Breakdown 

The Valorant Champions Tour 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo is quickly approaching. As we get closer, the excitement for the tournament is only growing.

The Valorant Champions Tour 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo is quickly approaching. As we get closer, the excitement for the tournament is only growing. With the event just under a month away, Riot Games released information regarding the format of the tournament.

Riot Games has announced that the tournament will be a single-elimination event which has gotten a large reaction from the community. Single elimination rewards teams that execute a minimal amount of mistakes, one thrown round could cost you your entire tournament life. While the added stakes are, of course, more exciting, some argue that the excitement comes at the cost of development, as many of the teams attending the event will be starting new rosters that will not have a ton of time to practice and learn to gel as a team.

The way the format is set up means that 16 teams will also be paying to send their players to Brazil to play a single match. The nightmare of devoting all that time and energy to travel and practice just only to get to play two maps will be a devastating reality for many teams, something Riot is aware of as they don’t plan to get rid of non-single elimination formats in the future. 

Format

Riot Games started by announcing that they had invited two more teams to the tournament, both of which were from China, increasing the number of participating teams to 32. Ten teams from the Americas, EMEA, and Pacific regions qualified and will be participating in the LOCK//IN tournament.

Americas: 100 Thieves, Cloud9, Evil Geniuses, FURIA, KRÜ Esports, Leviatán, LOUD, MiBR, NRG, and Sentinels.

EMEA: Fnatic, FUT Esports, Giants, Karmine Corp, Koi, NAVI, Team Heretics, Team Liquid, Team Vitality.

Pacific: DetonatioN FocusMe, DRX, Gen.G, Global Esports, Paper Rex, Rex Regum Qeon, T1, Talon Esports, Team Secret, ZETA Division.

China: EDward Gaming, FunPlus Pheonix

The teams were separated into two 16 groups based on the region in a way that would create as many interregional matchups as possible. Each group was then placed into a bracket based on a random draw.

Matches will be best of three until the finals of each group which will be a best of five. The two group winners will then play each other in another best of five. The bracket is single elimination, meaning if you lose a single match of Valorant, you go home. 

Schedule

The way the tournament is scheduled is that one group (Alpha) will play up until it has two teams remaining February 13-19th.  Then the second group (Omega) will play its matches February 22-27th. The final four teams will conclude the tournament with matches played March 2nd-4th. All times are listed in Central Time.

14 February

11:00 AM  – KOI  vs  NRG (Alpha – Round 1)

2:00 PM  – DetonatioN FocusMe  vs  Giants (Alpha – Round 1)

5:00 PM  – Gen.G  vs  LOUD (Alpha – Round 1)

15 February

11:00 AM  – FunPlus Phoenix  vs  Karmine Corp (Alpha – Round 1)

2:00 PM  – BBL Esports  vs  DRX (Alpha – Round 1)

5:00 PM  – Cloud9  vs  Paper Rex (Alpha – Round 1)

16 February

11:00 AM  – Evil Geniuses  vs  Team Heretics (Alpha – Round 1)

2:00 PM  – MIBR  vs  Talon Esports (Alpha – Round 1)

18 February

11:00 AM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Alpha – Round 2)

2:00 PM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Alpha – Round 2)

19 February

11:00 AM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Alpha – Round 2)

2:00 PM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Alpha – Round 2)

20 February

11:00 AM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Alpha – Quaterfinal)

2:00 PM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Alpha – Quaterfinal)

23 February

11:00 AM  – Team Liquid  vs  Team Secret (Omega – Round 1)

2:00 PM  – Natus Vincere  vs  KRÜ Esports (Omega – Round 1)

5:00 PM  – ZETA DIVISION  vs  Leviatán (Omega – Round 1)

24 February

11:00 AM  – Team Vitality  vs  Global Esports (Omega – Round 1)

2:00 PM  – FUT Esports  vs  Rex Regum Qeon (Omega – Round 1)

5:00 PM  – 100 Thieves  vs  EDward Gaming (Omega – Round 1)

25 February

11:00 AM  – Sentinels  vs  Fnatic (Omega – Round 1)

2:00 PM  – T1  vs  FURIA Esports (Omega – Round 1)

26 February

11:00 AM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Omega – Round 2)

2:00 PM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Omega – Round 2)

27 February

11:00 AM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Omega – Round 2)

2:00 PM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Omega – Round 2)

28 February

11:00 AM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Omega – Quaterfinal)

2:00 PM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Omega – Quaterfinal)

March 3

11:00 AM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Semifinal)

March 4

11:00 AM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Semifinal)

March 5

11:00 AM  – TBD  vs  TBD (Grand Final)