Riot confirms 32 VCT partners for 2027-2028 cycle

Riot Games has selected 32 partner organisations for the 2027-2028 VALORANT Champions Tour cycle after reviewing more than 100 applications. Several teams announced their status on social media before Riot confirmed the full regional lineups.

The two-year renewable partnership cycle includes eight teams in each of VCT’s four international regions: Americas, EMEA, Pacific and China. Riot’s evaluation covered community growth, fan engagement and content, business sustainability, organisational infrastructure and competitive performance.

The Americas lineup includes 100 Thieves, G2 Esports, KRÜ Esports, Leviatán, LOUD, MIBR, NRG and Sentinels. EMEA’s teams are BBL Esports, Fnatic, FUT Esports, Gentle Mates, Karmine Corp, Team Heretics, Team Liquid and Team Vitality.

Pacific will feature Crazy Raccoon, FULL SENSE, GAM Esports, Gen.G, Paper Rex, T1, Team RRQ and ZETA DIVISION. China’s teams are All Gamers, Bilibili Gaming, EDward Gaming, JD Gaming, Trace Esports, TYLOO, Weibo Gaming and Xi Lai Gaming.

Partner organisations will receive annual financial stipends and revenue from team capsules and Championship bundles. They will also receive direct seeding into the season-opening VCT Kickoff tournaments. Under Riot’s revised “Tournament-First” format, partner status guarantees seeding only for Kickoff.

After Kickoff, partner teams will compete against rosters that qualify through open regional tournaments. These matches will determine participation in regional Cups, Masters events and Champions, giving non-partnered organisations a route to international competition.

The announcement has prompted several organisations to reassess their competitive operations. Cloud9 plans to rebuild through open qualifiers, while Evil Geniuses has scaled back its competitive operations after more than 25 years in esports.

M80 founder and CEO Marco Mereu criticised the financial gap between partnered organisations and independent teams seeking to maintain tier-one rosters. Emmanuel Neyra, Lyon Gaming’s head of VALORANT, raised concerns about the absence of a directly partnered organisation from Latin America North and its effect on player and team development in the region.

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