Riot has revealed the format of Valorant Champions 2022, set to take place in Istanbul, Turkey from August 31 to September 18.
The 16 attending teams will be split into four double-elimination groups. The top two from each group will advance to the eight-team double-elimination playoffs. All matches will Bo3 except the grand final and lower bracket final, which will be Bo5.
The overall format mirrors that of last year's event, with the notable difference being the switch from single-elimination to double-elimination playoffs.
The randomly-drawn initial group stage matchups are:
Group A
- Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov vs. EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunji (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东)
- Leviatán Leviatán Latin America South Rank #1 tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena Mazino Roberto Rivas aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee vs. Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #15 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Enzo Enzo Mestari Mistic James Orfila Keiko Georgio Sanassy
Group B
- OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive vs. BOOM Esports BOOM Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #4 ZesBeeW Sha Mohtar Famouz Fikri Zaki Hamdani Shiro Hildegard Arnaldo NcSlasher Sheldon Andersen Chandra BerserX Rizkie Adla Kusuma
- ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #9 Laz Ushida Koji yuran Yushin Hato hiroronn Hiroki Yanai Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe vs. LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 saadhak Matias Delipetro Less Felipe de Loyola tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira
Group C
- FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks vs. KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Klaus Nicolas Ferrari Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro heat Olavo Marcelo
- XSET XSET Inactive vs. XERXIA Esports XERXIA Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #87 aLerT Wattanachok Yingnakorn Potter Sutthichai Promsrikaew b3ta Puwadon Jaisuekul siraphop Siraphop Honghirun
Group D
- DRX DRX Korea Rank #2 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) BuZz Yu Byung-chul (유병철) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) vs. FURIA FURIA Brazil Rank #9 kon4n Vitor Hugo xand Alexandre Zizi mwzera Leonardo Serrati havoc Ilan Eloy Khalil Khalil Schmidt nzr Agustin Ibarra
- FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Leo Leo Jannesson Derke Nikita Sirmitev Boaster Jake Howlett Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder vs. 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #1 bang Sean Bezerra Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk