Game developer Riot Games has announced that its international event, VALORANT Masters, will head to China during the 2024 VALORANT Champions Tour season.
The VCT Masters event will take place in Shanghai and is set to be the 2024 season’s second international event.
In a video announcement, Leo Faria, the Global Head of VALORANT Esports, highlighted that the event will celebrate the one year anniversary of the FPS game in China. VALORANT officially launched in China on July 12th, three years after its global launch in June 2020.
Specifically, Masters Shanghai will occur in late Spring 2024. For context, VCT Masters Tokyo, this season’s second international event, took place in early June. Details such as the competition’s format, venue and ticket prices have yet to be disclosed.
Despite the game only just launching in early July — after getting approval from the Chinese government in December 2022 — China has featured representatives at every VCT international event this year. Most notably, Chinese esports organisation EDward Gaming made it to the lower bracket quarter finals at VCT Tokyo.
Riot Games has stated it hopes to incorporate China into the VCT by 2024.
VALORANT’s 2023 esports ecosystem is still underway, with 16 teams set to travel to Los Angeles, United States, in August for the season’s grand finale. The location of VCT’s first international event for 2024 has yet to be revealed.
Shanghai has already hosted a major Riot Games international event in the past, with the League of Legends World Championship in 2020 taking place in the city. Riot Games is owned by Tencent, a Chinese entertainment conglomerate.
