Riot Games has confirmed that the Open Qualifiers for the 2027 season of the Valorant Champions Tour will begin in November 2026 – and with them comes the most significant structural change to the circuit since the partnership era started in 2023. From next season on, teams outside the partnered leagues will have a defined route not only into Kickoff but, in principle, all the way to Champions.
Four Open Slots per Region
The framework is built around the three international leagues: Americas, EMEA and Pacific. Each will send 12 teams into VCT Kickoff in 2027. Eight of those places remain reserved for partner organizations, while the remaining four per region are to be earned through Open Qualifiers. China is set to run its own Open Qualifiers as well.
Crucially, the open path does not end at Kickoff. According to Riot, teams coming through the qualifiers will have a route to the Cups, the Masters events and Champions itself. Non-partner rosters that reach major VCT stages in 2027 are to receive fixed qualification payments and become eligible for prize money at the relevant events – a financial safety net that the previous Challengers-to-Ascension ladder never really offered.
Multiple Chances, Regional Sub-Qualifiers
Regions may host more than one Open Qualifier during the season, meaning a team that misses out in November is not automatically done for the year. Depending on how each region designs its pathway, squads could get several shots at a Kickoff ticket. Riot has said a full-year calendar and further details will follow.
The regional split is broad. In the Americas, qualifiers are planned for North America, Latin America North, Latin America South and Brazil. EMEA will run events for Europe, Türkiye and MENA. The Pacific list is the longest: South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Southeast Asia (covering the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and the rest of the region), South Asia and Oceania.
What Teams Need Now
Registration is not open yet, but the preparation checklist is already clear. Teams need a stable five-player roster, and in most regions at least three of those five must be from the region in question. Every player will need a valid passport, and visa or travel planning should start early. Roster continuity also matters: open and creator-led squads that retain at least three of five players keep their competitive progress across the season.
What It Means for the Scene – and for Bettors
The move mirrors what Riot has been doing on the League of Legends side, where tier-two competition has recently been given a much larger international stage. In Valorant, the partnered leagues have long been criticized as closed shops, with Ascension historically offering just one promotion spot per region per year. Four open Kickoff berths per region – roughly a third of the field – is a very different proposition, and it should also make the offseason transfer market considerably more active, since non-partner teams now have a tangible reason to invest in top-tier talent.
For the betting market, the implications are twofold. Open Qualifiers are traditionally where the biggest odds swings happen, because bookmakers have limited data on unknown rosters – expect generous prices on outsiders in November and December. And once the qualifiers reach Kickoff in early 2027, the presence of four unproven teams per region should make group-stage upsets more common than in recent seasons. Anyone planning to bet on the new open path should compare markets early; a strong welcome bonus at a bookmaker with deep Valorant coverage is the sensible starting point.
Riot’s full 2027 calendar is expected in the coming weeks. Until then, the message to aspiring rosters is simple: lock in your five, sort your paperwork, and be ready for November.
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