Valorant Ignition Series: Riot partner with 20 orgs for first official Valorant tournaments

Riot has made the first steps into creating a competitive Valorant eco-system with the Ignition Series - which will see tournaments hosted and organised by 20 esport organisations around the world with the first being the G2 Esport Invitational and the GAGE Valorant Invitational which are both scheduled for 19-21st June.

(Picture: Riot Games)

The G2 Esports Tournament will feature 8 teams led by "Captains" who will not be aware of who they will be playing with until the day of the tournament.

Carlos Rodriguez, CEO of G2 Esports, spoke of building on the strong relationship the org has with one of gaming's most accomplished esports focused developers.

(Picture: Riot Games)

"We are ready to open the VALORANT Ignition Series and continue the success of the G2 EU Brawls in an all-out entertainment-filled invitational. Our partnership with Riot has helped make the European League of Legends community the force it is today and contributed to the success of the LEC, and I have no doubt that we will do the same for VALORANT."

The RAGE Japan tournament, on the other hand, will feature 16 invited teams, all with an "established reputation", who will be competing for a winner-takes-all prize of 500,000 Yen.

(Picture: Riot Games)

Further Ignition Series tournaments planned for regions throughout the world including North America, Brazil, Latin America, Korea, South East Asia, Oceania, Russia, Turkey, and the Middle East.

The tournament are set to be a mix of open qualifiers, Invitational's featuring pro players and content creators, and show matches.

Riot also plan to improve their spectator experience. 

"We're actively working with the development team on features that will help make it easier to watch as well as opportunities that will provide a level of competition above the ranked system," Riot explained in a press release.

After the opening tournaments, June will see a another two events with one being played in North America and another in EMEA scheduled for 26-28th June, with more details set to follow.

(Picture: Riot Games)

Valorant left closed beta on the 2nd June and there is huge interest in the game as an esport, with a number of tournaments with substantial prize pools as well as esport organisations making their first forays into the game with TSM, 100 Thieves and T1, among others, signing players.