Riot Games recently announced the Challengers Path to Champions that is going to shake things up for the Challengers leagues. If you haven’t seen it, here is a quick recap: Going forward, instead of qualifying through Ascension, Challengers teams will now have an opportunity to fight for slots at the International Leagues’ Stage 2 Playoffs leading to Champions.
As announced on the Valorant Champions tour page, each International League will be giving four slots to Challengers teams. In the Asia Pacific, the slots will be split as follows: The top team from Challengers Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea will each be given a direct slot in Stage 2 Playoffs. The fourth and final slot will be determined by a Last Chance Qualifier between the best team from South Asia, Oceania, and the 2nd and 3rd seeds from Southeast Asia.
Given the number of highly competitive regions in APAC, the focus is on finding a balance between recognizing regions with a track record of competitive strength and ensuring other regions still have a chance to prove themselves and earn a slot. In the case of Southeast Asia, which has such a large player base and many subregions, there is an opportunity to fight for more than one slot.
Apart from having a chance to compete at the international league level and potentially qualifying for Champions, each Challengers team that manages to reach Stage 2 Playoffs will be given a US$75,000 stipend.
Academy teams will still be included in the Challengers leagues, but they cannot qualify for Stage 2 Playoffs. To foster a more equitable Challengers ecosystem, the relegation protection for Academy teams will be removed in 2026. So if an Academy team finishes at the bottom of their regional Challengers, they will need to fight to keep their slot.
Each region’s Challengers format will be announced locally in the near future.
Changes to Challengers Southeast Asia
There will be some changes to Challengers Southeast Asia next year to create even more opportunities for local teams and players. There will be a pivot toward a tournament model that consists of a mix of local events that funnel up into panregional matches over two splits.
Qualification for Challengers Southeast Asia will start at the local level where teams will fight through an open qualifier.
Successful teams will then play in a local qualifying tournament. This is also where Southeast Asian Academy teams will begin. The two best teams from each local qualifier will then move on to Challengers Southeast Asia, which will be structured as a 12 team tournament.
This process repeats for each split.
There will be five local qualifying tournaments to be launched for Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. The final qualifier will be made up of all the other remaining Southeast Asian regions.
Players can also climb the ranks and qualify through Premier regardless of the residency. Two of the best Premier teams from the corresponding Episode will qualify for each Challengers Southeast Asia split.
The goal with this new structure is to be more intentional about bringing representation to Challengers Southeast Asia while creating more room for competition and talent development at the local level.
Further, recognizing that streaming exclusivity was a pain point for the teams and fans this year, the exclusivity for Challengers Southeast Asia will be lifted next year. Riot Games will be working with local partners to provide local language broadcasts for the community.
Watch out for how Challengers teams will shake things up at VCT Pacific Stage 2 Playoffs.
