After two long weeks of qualifiers, the team list for Challengers North America has been finalized. Six qualified squads will join another six invited squads, making for the biggest Challengers league in the world.

For VCL NA, the qualifying structure was split into two. Two 128-team open qualifiers were hosted, the first of which drafted four teams into the league. In the following week, a last chance qualifier slotted just two teams into VCL to complete the team list. Both qualifiers were, from the top 32, reseeded and converted from single to double-elimination.

Knights Arena
@KnightsArena
The Valorant Challengers League is almost upon us 👀

Learn more about the league format before it kicks off and check back later this week for signups:
15:09 PM · Dec 27, 2022 ·
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Both qualifiers hosted many names known to the Valorant community, who have traversed several VCT qualifiers and dominated the tier 2 scene for a long time. One notable exception was The Nation The Nation Inactive brax Braxton Pierce Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo Stewie2k Jake Yip TiGG Tanner Spanu WARDELL Matthew Yu , an amalgamation of former high-level players that included Stewie2k , WARDELL , and brax . The roster took down Dark Ratio Dark Ratio Inactive Ange Adam Milian Trick Justin Sears ZexRow Anthony Colandro Drone Taylor Johnson Will William Cheng and The Silk Road The Silk Road Inactive GLYPH Conner Garcia Neon Austin Hedge d1msumboi Erik Almhjell , but fell to BreakThru BreakThru Inactive thief Brady Dever aproto Alex Protopapas sym Tyler Porter flyuh Xavier Carlson brawk Brock Somerhalder in the qualifying match. BreakThru had already taken down names such as Cosmic Divide Cosmic Divide Inactive ChurmZ Corey Koch Tkaz Tyler Kazmierczak renz Austin Dickman tokyo Sebastien Lima syfi Samir Karimov and Team Reckaroo Team Reckaroo Inactive Blahst Nathan Brand Tim Timothy Braun kev Kevin Pham Nanners Anderson Lutkehus yiinel Elias Soto , cementing their place in the NA VCL over some of the game's early greats.

Disguised, a roster owned by content creator Disguised Toast and led in-game by steel , also scored a successful upper bracket run. After gunning Squirtle Squad Squirtle Squad Inactive Add3r Jack Hayashi Okeanos Anthony Nguyen wedid Matthew Suchan Harmful Mohammed C. Governor Peter No down, Disguised effortlessly took down NSIC NSIC Inactive epathy Ngawang Chonjor neptune Jason Tran Lear Dayton Akau riku Chris Piasecki snirot Edmon Ghanem and Oxygen Esports to qualify for the league from the upper bracket.

The final four rounds of the lower bracket were filled to the brim with known names: Moon Raccoons Moon Raccoons Inactive icy Jacob Lange tech ZK Timothy Ly , Nearest Airport Nearest Airport Inactive melya k0rupt Wylie Watts BlackMoose Shawn Fox Uncreative Kuba Kosiba Tn , NSIC, Dark Ratio Dark Ratio Inactive Ange Adam Milian Trick Justin Sears ZexRow Anthony Colandro Drone Taylor Johnson Will William Cheng , The Silk Road, Oxygen Esports Oxygen Esports Inactive skuba Logan Jenkins mitch Mitch Semago Verno Andrew Maust Reduxx Yassin Aboulalazm dapr Michael Gulino , and The Nation. The final four names made up the final two matches, which saw Oxygen and Dark Ratio conquer their berths in the VCL NA.

Most names returned for the LCQ, which saw a more top-heavy upper bracket. Among the top eight were The Nation, Squirtle Squad, YFP Gaming YFP Gaming North America Rank #13 jakee Jake Anderson stellar Brenden McGrath penny Erik Penny thief Brady Dever fiziq Lucas Blow , Nearest Airport, and Moon Raccoons. With the number of available slots reduced to just two, Squirtle Squad's newest iteration broke through YFP, The Nation, and OREsports OREsports Inactive nillyaz Chase Linder Paincakes Jake Hass to win the upper bracket and move into the league.

The lower bracket's final games saw names like VIRTUOSO VIRTUOSO Inactive King Aiden King Eley Zach Stauffer DBK Dylan Bazic-Kulangiev Blahst Nathan Brand snxper Louis Lama and Moon Raccoons get knocked out. In the meantime, Soniqs Soniqs Inactive were busy recovering from a 2-0 loss to The Nation in the round of 16. They chained six lower bracket wins, eliminating the likes of Cosmic Divide, The Nation and Nearest Airport before getting to the lower final. In the final match, played today against OREsports, Soniqs' run was brought to an end by OREsports in a 2-1 series.

Jonaaa6
@Jonaaa6_VAL
Qualified for Challenger's Split. Winning moment 2-1 @SoniqsEsports Blessed and grateful. We have a relatively short time together, but we worked so fucking hard. Thank you to the goat @vapenfps for transforming this team into something great and improving my IGL capabilities <3
21:14 PM · Jan 22, 2023 ·
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These six squads will join several big names of North American Valorant, such as TSM TSM North America Rank #10 seven Johann Hernandez gMd Anthony Guimond sym Tyler Porter tdawgg Travis Regan XXiF Damion Cook , Shopify Rebellion Shopify Rebellion Inactive v1c Victor Truong mada Adam Pampuch , G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf , and The Guard The Guard Inactive JonahP Jonah Pulice trent Trent Cairns neT Michael Bernet valyn Jacob Batio tex Ian Botsch , in Challengers North America. The first split will run from February to mid-March, when the best eight teams will take a break to play the Mid-Season Invitational in late March.

Competition will return between April and June, when the second split and the playoffs will be hosted. Whichever teams accumulate the most points throughout the year will then qualify to Ascension to get a chance at making the VCT Americas, although the exact number of teams is yet unconfirmed.

The full team list for Challengers NA is: