Valorant T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown: Schedule, Format, Prize Pool, Teams & How to Watch

The next tournament in the Ignition Series, Valorant T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown, is the first North American tournament, and judging by past events, it will be an excellent event to watch this coming weekend, starting on 26th June.

About Valorant T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown

T1 Entertainment & Sports (T1) and Nerd Street Gamers have partnered up to bring esports fans the first North American tournament from the Ignition Series.

The tournament provides both pro teams, famous players, as well as amateurs a chance to test their mettle via the qualifiers. 

Joe Marsh, the CEO of T1, comments on the tournament: â€œWe’re thrilled to partner with Nerd Street Gamers to bring Riot’s first VALORANT Ignition Series event to North America.

"In addition to T1’s VALORANT team, we’ve invited some of the biggest names in gaming to battle it out for the record-breaking $50K prize pool in North America and look forward to sharing some exciting programming elements as we get closer to the event.”

Team Ninja looks mighty strong (Picture: T1)

One of the biggest names in gaming is undoubtedly Richard Tyler Blevins, also known as Ninja, who will be competing in the tournament. Team Ninja consists of Fortnite pro Austin “Morgausse” Etue, former Apex Legends pro Greg “GregoFPS” McAllen, CS:GO pro Alex “Lex” Deily, and former Fortnite pro Michael “sonii” Sherman.

Prize pool

The Valorant T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown participants will battle it out for the biggest Valorant tournament prize pool in North America so far. The prize pool is $50,000.

The tournament's prize pool distribution is:

• 1st place - $25,000
• 2nd place - $15,000
• 3rd place - $5,000
• 4th place - $5,000

Now, onto the teams which will compete in the Valorant T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown, and fight it out for their share of the $50,000 prize pool.

Teams

A total of 16 teams will compete in the Valorant T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown. 

The confirmed teams so far are:

• T1 (invited)
• Gen.G Esports (invited)
• Sentinels (invited)
• Immortals (invited)
• Team SoloMid (invited)
• Team Ninja (invited)
• Charlotte Pheonix (community qualifier)
• Together we are terrific (qualifier 1)
• Prospects (qualifier 1)
• Spot Up (qualifier 2)
• Echo 8 (qualifier 2)
• 100 Thieves
• FaZe Clan
• Code 7
• MixUp
• Cloud 9

Format

The Valorant T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown will start with a group stage, with the 16 teams being split into four groups of four. From there, the top two teams will qualify for the playoffs, while the bottom two teams in each group will get eliminated.

• Read more: Valorant Ranked Competitive is coming with patch 1.02 - what's new?

The tournament will them move into a double-elimination playoffs format. Winner bracket matches are best-of-three, while loser bracket matches are best-of-one.

The grand finals will be a best-of-five slugfest between the top two teams, with the team making it all the way through the winner bracket starting with a one-map advantage.

Schedule

On 26th June, the Valorant T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown will kick off with the group stage matches. All group stage matches will be played on the day, starting at 22:00 UK time.

• Read more: Will Valorant get weapon skins trading?

The playoffs will be played entirely on 27th June. Matches start at 22:00 UK time, so set those alarms and don't miss out.

Valorant T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown: How to watch

All of the action will be streamed live on T1's Twitch channel which we have embedded for you below.