Riot Games is opening the door to the Valorant Champions Tour wider in 2027, with regional Open Qualifiers providing non-partner teams a direct route into VCT competition.
The first qualifiers begin in November 2026. Riot says Kickoff events in VCT Americas, EMEA and Pacific will each contain 12 teams: eight partner teams and four teams from Open Qualifiers.
Read Riot's official VCT 2027 Open Qualifier announcement
That structure represents a meaningful shift in how an aspiring team can enter the professional ecosystem.
In 2026, Challenger teams were given a Path to Champions through Stage 2 Playoffs after Riot moved away from the previous Ascension system. The route still required teams to establish themselves within the Challenger structure before reaching the biggest stages.
For 2027, Riot is building open qualification more directly into VCT.
The company says open teams will be capable of qualifying for Kickoff, Cups, Masters and even Champions. Partner organizations retain an initial advantage because they enter Kickoff directly, but Riot's new format requires teams to keep earning their positions as the season progresses.
Open competition does not mean the road suddenly becomes easy.
Four Open Qualifier places at a 12-team Kickoff are meaningful, but every regional field could contain a large number of teams chasing those slots.
Riot says regions may hold multiple Open Qualifiers, which gives unsuccessful teams more than one opportunity to advance. The exact regional formats, registration dates and eligibility rules are still being finalized.
There are already requirements aspiring players can prepare for.
Riot tells teams to establish a competitive roster, make sure players have valid passports, begin dealing with travel or visa requirements when necessary, and watch for regional age and MMR eligibility rules. In most regions, at least three members of a five-player roster will need to come from that region.
Roster continuity is particularly important.
Open and creator-led teams that retain at least three of their five players will keep their competitive progress during the season. That makes the new path considerably more serious than assembling five strong ranked players immediately before registration.
Riot is also attaching financial support to advancement.
Its broader VCT 2027 plan lists fixed payments of $100,000 for an open team qualifying for Kickoff or a Cup, $200,000 for Masters and $400,000 for Champions. Open teams can also earn applicable prize money.
Those payments matter because an open circuit creates expenses before it creates a sustainable organization. Travel, visas, practice time and maintaining a stable roster become increasingly difficult as teams move from online competition toward international events.
The result is a path that is genuinely more open, but not casual.
A strong ranked team now has a more visible starting point. It still needs to become an organized competitive team to make meaningful progress.
That difference is important.
Riot is not promising that anybody can walk out of ranked and into Champions. It is building a wider funnel at the bottom while leaving elite competition extremely narrow at the top.
The first real measurement comes in November, when registration numbers and regional formats reveal just how crowded that funnel will be.
