Valorant Champions Tour 2023: Riot announces LOCK//IN tournament details including teams, brackets, format, match schedule and more
- Moulik Mathur
- January 18, 2023 (UPDATED: January 19, 2023 16:18 IST)
This is set to be the largest event in the history of the VALORANT Champions Tour, as per Riot Games. LOCK//IN will have the world’s best 32 esports team contesting for the ultimate prize in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Riot Games has announced the LOCK//IN tournament details. This is set to be the largest event in the history of the VALORANT Champions Tour, as per Riot Games. LOCK//IN will have the world’s best 32 esports team contesting for the ultimate prize in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The tournament kicks off on February 13 and ends on March 4.
LOCK//IN Participating Teams
LOCK//IN will have teams participating from different regions of the world including Americas, Pacific, and EMEA. There are two teams invited by Riot Games to represent China at the official tournament.
| AMERICAS Teams | PACIFIC Teams | EMEA Teams | Invited Teams from China |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 Thieves | DetonatioN FocusMe | BBL Esports | EDG |
| Cloud9 | DRX | Fnatic | FPX |
| Evil Geniuses | Gen.G | FUT Esports | |
| FURIA | Global Esports | Giants | |
| Kru Esports | Paper Rex | Karmine Corp | |
| Leviatán | Rex Regum Qeon | KOI | |
| LOUD | T1 | NAVI | |
| MiBR | Talon Esports | Team Heretics | |
| NRG | Team Secret | Team Liquid | |
| Sentinels | ZETA Division | Team Vitality |
LOCK//IN Tournament Format
Riot Games has went with a single-elimination format for this tournament. They’ve also revealed that the subsequent esports events will once again follow their usual double-elimination format.
LOCK//IN followed a random draw process so that teams from different regions are paired together in the first round. Riot has also tried to maximise the possibility of inter-regional matches for the second round.
To achieve this, Riot first paired the regions into 16 first-round match-ups where each match-up would consist of two team slots. Here’s how that works out:
- EMEA vs PACIFIC - 5 match-ups
- AMERICAS vs PACIFIC - 5 match-ups
- AMERICAS vs EMEA - 4 match-ups
- CHINA vs AMERICAS - 1 match-up
- CHINA vs EMEA - 1 match-up
Each team slot was given a random number from 1-10 so as to accommodate 32 teams. For example: Americas 1-10, EMEA 1-10, PACIFIC 1-10, China 1-2. Riot also took the liberty of pairing teams from China with team slots from the AMERICAS and EMEA to “maximize geographically diverse competition”.
Then, Riot distributed the 16 match-ups across two sides of the single elimination bracket. This was done so as to increase the chances of inter-regional matches for the first two rounds. For reference, Riot has named these brackets Alpha and Omega.
Here are the Alpha and Omega brackets for LOCK//IN event
| Alpha Matches | Omega Matches |
|---|---|
| AMERICAS vs PACIFIC - 3 | AMERICAS vs PACIFIC - 2 |
| EMEA vs PACIFIC - 2 | EMEA vs PACIFIC - 3 |
| EMEA vs AMERICAS - 2 | EMEA vs AMERICAS - 2 |
| CHINA vs EMEA -1 | CHINA vs AMERICAS - 1 |
Riot then explained how the final bracket came to be. “A random draw assigned each of the 32 teams a number from 1-10 that corresponded to their region and an already placed team slot, giving us our final bracket.”
LOCK//IN event schedule
LOCK//IN will consist of three stages:
- Alpha Matches: February 13 -19
- Alpha Matches will play out until there are only two teams left.
- Each match will be a Best-of-Three to decide the winner.
- Omega Matches: February 22 - 27
- Same rules as Alpha matches.
- Alpha Matches will play out until there are only two teams left.
- Each match will be a Best-of-Three to decide the winner.
- Finals Stage
- The remaining four teams play through the Semifinals and Finals to decide the final winner.
- Matches in the semifinals and finals will be decided by Best-of-Five score.
LOCK//IN match schedule:
| Monday | February-13 | Alpha Matches |
| Tuesday | February-14 | Alpha Matches |
| Wednesday | February-15 | Alpha Matches |
| Thursday | February-16 | Dark Day |
| Friday | February-17 | Alpha Matches |
| Saturday | February-18 | Alpha Matches |
| Sunday | February-19 | Alpha Matches |
| Monday | February-20 | Dark Day |
| Tuesday | February-21 | Dark Day |
| Wednesday | February-22 | Omega Matches |
| Thursday | February-23 | Omega Matches |
| Friday | February-24 | Omega Matches |
| Saturday | February-25 | Omega Matches |
| Sunday | February-26 | Omega Matches |
| Monday | February-27 | Omega Matches |
| Tuesday | February-28 | Dark Day |
| Wednesday | March-01 | Dark Day |
| Thursday | March-02 | Semifinals |
| Friday | March-03 | Semifinals |
| Saturday | March-04 | Finals |