Photo: Maxime Ducher
This weekend, the Brazilians of LOUD were crowned Valorant World Champions after winning the grand final of the tournament Champions. After their 3-1 victory over Optic Gaming, the winners gave way to John Needham, the esports director of Riot Games. The latter logically congratulated the winners, but he also took the opportunity to announce that the 30 partner teams of the circuit VCT 2023 would be announced this week! Some may have talked too much since a name has already leaked early in the morning! This is of particular interest to the French community, given that it is the Karmine Corp.. More details are to come, but it’s very good news if this is confirmed!
KC, leader
For 2023, Riot Games has decided to cut its competitive circuit into 3 regions: EMEA, Americas and Pacific. Each will have 10 members and we are gradually approaching a franchised system League of Legends. We can only welcome this desire for structuring, but with only 10 places per region, tickets are very limited, especially for the “Europe” region which must take into account the Turks, the Russians, the African continent and the Middle East. ! According to rumors, several French structures had applied to join the circuit. We don’t know yet who will be accepted, but it smells very good for the Karmine Corp. !
According to blix.gg, KC would have been selected by Riot Games, following a collective trip to Berlin. It’s not really worth pretending to be shocked though. The Karmine Corp has a huge fan base and the organizers would have been very wrong to deprive themselves of such a contribution. Whether for streams or for physical events, fans of the blue wall are always there. It remains to be seen who will be the 9 other members for the EMEA region.
Update: KOI would also have been accepted, which leaves only 8 places left to fill.
Strong choices to make
Riot Games selected the best files, but we imagine that the jury also took into account a lot of other elements, in particular to ensure a good representativeness of the community. With KC, France will therefore have at least one representative. We hope that vitality will also be accepted, on the other hand, we imagine that there cannot be a 3rd team from VRL France otherwise it would be a lot…. MAD Lions is in a delicate position.
Heavyweights like G2, Team Liquid, FPX or even Fnatic seem to be serious candidates. But there are few places and a surprise quickly arrived. Structures like Navigation, BBL Esports, BIG, OG or Guild all have arguments to make. It remains to be seen what type of arbitration will be carried out.