Riot Games has revealed that the second VCT Masters of 2024 will be held in Shanghai, to mark the game's first-year anniversary in China.
Announcing VCT Masters Shanghai as the second international tournament of the year all but confirms Riot's move to hosting two Masters tournaments a year. When the 2023 leagues were introduced, Riot confirmed 2023's LOCK//IN would be exceptional and that the VCT would move to a two-split format from 2024 on.
Hosting VCT Masters Shanghai as a celebration of Valorant's first anniversary in China points to late Spring or early Summer dates. Valorant was released in China on July 12, a month after the start of this year's Masters Tokyo. Exact details on the event — such as venue, format or tickets — have been unveiled.
Despite Valorant's July release in China, Chinese teams have been present in every international VCT competition since Champions 2022.
EDward Gaming
EDward Gaming
China
Rank #1
S1Mon
Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋)
ZmjjKK
Zheng Yongkang (郑永康)
nobody
Wang Senxu (王森旭)
CHICHOO
Wan Shunzhi (万顺治)
Smoggy
Zhang Zhao (张钊)
made waves by arriving at last year's world championship with a flawless East Asia LCQ run, and has since attended every international event of the VCT alongside other rosters such as
FunPlus Phoenix
FunPlus Phoenix
China
Rank #5
Autumn
Kale Dunne
Life
Qu Donghao (瞿东豪)
AAAAY
Zhang Yang (张杨)
BerLIN
Zhang Bolin (張柏霖)
yosemite
Wang Lei (王磊)
,
Attacking Soul Esports
Attacking Soul Esports
Inactive
monk
Wang Haoyu (王浩宇)
Yuicaw
Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑)
YHchen
Chen Yuhan (陳昱瀚)
Zero1
Meng Zhen Ren (任梦真)
, and
Bilibili Gaming
Bilibili Gaming
China
Rank #6
B3ar
Yang Zhanxiong (杨瞻雄)
whzy
Wang Haozhe (王昊哲)
Levius
Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中)
rushia
Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰)
nephh
Marcus Tan
Knight
Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔)
.
The announcement follows a slew of Chinese Valorant-related news in past months. The game was approved by China's National Press and Publication Administration in December. News on the Chinese client went dormant until late June when, in a press conference, Head of Global Esports Operations Whalen Rozelle announced the game would be released on July 12 and that the company hoped to include China in the VCT 2024.
One of the steps towards welcoming China to the VCT will be giving the country its own league. There is an ongoing discussion between Tencent and top Chinese esports players since February about creating the fourth International League in China.