Riot’s November 2024 plan for the 2025 VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) expanded the season from January to early October, added teams and matches to each international league, and changed how teams advanced through Kickoff, league stages and playoffs. Qualification for Champions Paris would combine two places earned in Stage 2 playoffs with two awarded through Championship Points. This is Riot’s announcement of the 2025 plan, not a current schedule.
What changed for the 2025 VCT season?
Riot presented the changes as a connected redesign: a longer calendar, more league-stage opportunities and a qualification system that rewarded both late-season results and performance across the season. The announcement was published on November 26, 2024. Riot said the 2024 season had been short, with tight turnarounds for teams reaching global events and some teams falling out of contention early. The longer schedule was intended to address those problems, though the announcement did not independently establish whether the new format achieved those aims.
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For context, Riot’s official 2025 season overview set out the plan and the rationale behind it.
How did the season calendar and international leagues change?
A longer season
Riot said the 2025 season would begin in January and end in early October. The expanded calendar was meant to give teams more breathing room between competitions and keep more teams in the race for longer.
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- PC, mobile, console… it all works. Just enter your code at shop.riotgames.com/redeem and choose the game you want to use this virtual currency for
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12 teams in each international league
Each international league was to expand to 12 teams. Riot projected 12.5% more total international league matches than under the prior format. Its per-team estimates were a floor of 12 matches, an average of about 18 and a maximum of 23 before global events. These are planning figures from Riot’s November 2024 announcement, not independently verified counts of matches played.
What was the new VCT format for 2025?
Kickoff: a 12-team double-elimination bracket
All 12 teams in each international league would enter Kickoff’s double-elimination bracket. The four teams that had reached Champions the previous year would receive byes into the second round. The bracket format gave teams a route to continue after a loss, while the byes recognized the previous season’s Champions teams.
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- PC, mobile, console… it all works. Just enter your code at shop.riotgames.com/redeem and choose the game you want to use this virtual currency for
- This code is only redeemable on Riot Accounts in North America and Canada
League stages: two groups of six
Each of the two league stages would divide the 12 teams into two groups of six. Teams would play round-robin matches within their group rather than play a full round-robin across both stages. Groups would be shuffled for Stage 2, changing the group matchups midway through the season.
Eight-team double-elimination playoffs
The top four teams from each group would advance to an eight-team playoff. Those playoffs would use double elimination, giving a team that lost once another chance to remain in contention.
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- Unlocks in-game currency that can be used to purchase in-game items
- Redeemable in VALORANT, League of Legends, Wild Rift, Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, and 2XKO
- PC, mobile, console… it all works. Just enter your code at shop.riotgames.com/redeem and choose the game you want to use this virtual currency for
- This code is only redeemable on Riot Accounts in North America and Canada
How would teams qualify for Champions Paris?
Four places at Champions were tied to international league results through two different routes:
- Two Stage 2 playoff places: These were open to all teams, regardless of earlier results, preserving a late-season path to Champions.
- Two Championship Points places: These rewarded teams for performance across the season. Riot said points would be distributed more deeply at Masters events and playoffs.
Riot also said each league stage would be self-contained, giving teams a fresh start midway through the season. This design paired the chance to qualify through Stage 2 with recognition for sustained results.
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- PC, mobile, console… it all works. Just enter your code at shop.riotgames.com/redeem and choose the game you want to use this virtual currency for
- This code is only redeemable on Riot Accounts in North America and Canada
Which global events and formats did Riot announce?
The announcement named Masters Bangkok, Masters Toronto and Champions Paris as the season’s global events. Their formats were:
| Event | Announced format |
|---|---|
| Masters Bangkok | Eight-team Swiss stage, followed by a four-team double-elimination playoff. |
| Masters Toronto | Eight-team Swiss stage; each league’s top seed would receive a bye, followed by an eight-team double-elimination playoff. |
| Champions Paris | Four groups of four, followed by an eight-team double-elimination playoff. |
These locations and formats describe Riot’s published 2025 plan. They should not be read as current event, travel or ticket information.
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- UNLOCK A UNIVERSE OF EXPERIENCES and compete with a global community of millions across multiple battlefields with Riot Games
- Unlocks in-game currency that can be used to purchase in-game items
- Redeemable in League of Legends, Valorant, Wild Rift, Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, and 2XKO
- PC, mobile, console… it all works. Just enter your code at shop.riotgames.com/redeem and choose the game you want to use this virtual currency for
- This code is only redeemable on Riot Accounts in North America and Canada
What the announcement does—and does not—establish
Riot’s overview documents the intended structure and its reasoning at the time. It provides projected match counts and explains the goals of the redesign, but it is not an independent evaluation of the season’s results. In particular, the projected team match totals and expected benefits should not be treated as measured outcomes without separate evidence.
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