A new era of the Valorant Champions Tour is upon us as Riot's partnership program takes shape. To welcome in the new format, the biggest international event in Valorant history will be played in São Paulo Brazil.

LOCK//IN will include all 30 partnered teams from across the three VCT leagues – Americas, EMEA, and Pacific – as well as two more teams from the newly official Chinese region. Here is a look at five of the teams that will be playing closest to home.

KRÜ Hit the Rebuild Button

Only one team in Valorant's history managed to qualify for every single international VCT event, and KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #2 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro certainly made a name for themselves while setting that record. Back-to-back playoff appearances in 2021, including a top-four finish at Champions 2021, ensured that KRÜ were known throughout the Valorant world as the LATAM juggernaut that was always a threat.

While they maintained a steady presence deep into 2022, playoff appearances and true contention escaped them. Facing declining performances and a loss of the LATAM crown to Leviatán, KRÜ have decided to reset.

KRÜ at Masters Copenhagen. Image Credit: Sebastian Stigsby, Riot Games

IGL Klaus and longtime Operator savant NagZ remain on the roster, but new faces have entered the fray. With former FURIA and NIP star xand , former Leviatán controller Melser , LATAM North standout DaveeyS , and sixth man axeddy , KRÜ are ready to take on the world.

Going into LOCK//IN, this roster already has some international experience. Despite using axeddy as a substitute, they placed top-four at Red Bull Home Ground 3, a tournament which featured six other partnered squads. KRÜ drew the short straw by matching up against Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #16 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio in the first round of a single elimination gauntlet. Time will tell if this roster can capture the same magic that propelled the org to fame.

Brazilian Fury will be Tested at Home

Always the bridesmaid and never the bride, FURIA FURIA Brazil Rank #4 heat Olavo Marcelo raafa Rafael Lima mwzera Leonardo Serrati havoc Ilan Eloy Khalil Khalil Schmidt have been competitive in Brazilian Valorant since the VCT began. Despite their prowess, they were continuously denied international appearances except at Champions events through the LCQs. Their two Champions performances were short-lived, as they still have yet to take an international match win.

FURIA at Champions 2022. Image Credit: FURIA

Despite their woes, FURIA decided to keep things together in 2023. To tip them over the edge from scrappy underdog to potential contender, they replaced the outgoing nzr with Brazilian phenom mwzera . The loss of the extremely flexible nzr may cause some role issues now that the roster contains four players who have primarily played duelist, but those issues may never come to pass since each member of the roster has diversified their agent pool in the past year.

In the first round of LOCK//IN, FURIA will face a vulnerable looking T1 T1 Korea Rank #2 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) Sylvan Go Young-sup (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) who just bombed out of the Ludwig x Tarik Invitational. Should they get their first international win, they'll have to then prepare for a tough-looking round 2 matchup against Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #3 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid or FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #6 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder .

Made in Brazil – Assembled for the World Stage

Now MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #3 artzin Arthur Araujo xenom Eduardo Soeiro cortezia Gabriel Cortez nzr Agustin Ibarra aspas Erick Santos , the Keyd Stars Keyd Stars Inactive core made waves in 2021, only to struggle to capitalize off of its obvious skill after a pair of international appearances. Lackluster showings throughout 2022 led to several roster changes and eventually this revamped MIBR lineup.

MIBR's new roster. Image Credit: MIBR

Although mwzera left for FURIA, the core of heat, RgLMeister , and IGL murizzz joined up with the stars of the previous MIBR roster, jzz and frz . The lineup reunites frz with coach bzkA , a pairing which dominated Brazil in 2021 as part of Team Vikings Team Vikings Inactive Veroneze Vinícius Ribeiro Ds Daniel Silva swag João Neto pollo Julio Silva . More recently, bzkA coached the breakout LOUD roster to a dominant 2022 and a world championship.

Like KRÜ, this roster has already been tested. They played in the LATAM Gods tournament in December, where they took maps from but failed to defeat Leviatán. They received a favorable draw for LOCK//IN by being placed near other underdogs like Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #21 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le icy Jacob Lange yay Jaccob Whiteaker and Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius as well as a first round matchup with the potentially Patiphan-less TALON TALON Asia-Pacific Rank #10 Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam primmie Papaphat Sriprapha ban Joseph Seungmin Oh Governor Peter No .

A Leviathan Rises

Oft forgotten in the formative years of Valorant was the LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee nataNk Nathan Bocqueho core which continuously played second fiddle to KRÜ in LATAM. It wasn't until 2022 that they began to realize their potential. Despite losing out to KRÜ in Stage 1, they showed promising improvement alongside new coach Onur , and through the rest of the year, they supplanted KRÜ as LATAM's top behemoth.

Leviatán at Masters Copenhagen. Image Credit: Colin Young-Wolff, Riot Games

Leviatán went for broke in the new year by snatching up a duo of KRÜ's stars in keznit and Mazino as well as FURIA's IGL and top performer nzr . Pairing keznit with incumbent duelist Tacolilla has been an awkward fit, and both saw playing time during their LATAM Gods run.

At LATAM Gods, the LATAM superteam showcased their dominance, and fought off a rejuvenated MIBR to take the crown. During the first round of LOCK//IN, they will have to put down a fan favorite ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #2 Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani SyouTa Shota Aoki Xdll Yuto Mizomori in order to chase their dreams of an international title.

World Champions Choose Youth

After a year of Brazil enduring jokes about their performances, the breakout LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 dgzin Douglas Silva v1nny Vínicius Gonçalves pANcada Bryan Luna tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira roster finally married the fragging potential of Brazil with the consistent teamplay and strategy necessary to make them a threat to the greatest of international foes. As the reigning world champions, LOUD would be expected to enter LOCK//IN as clear favorites, but roster shuffles have muddied the waters slightly.

LOUD at Champions 2022. Image Credit: Riot Games

After long and strenuous negotiations with the organization, Sacy and pANcada chose to depart to Americas League rivals Sentinels. Additionally, they parted ways with coach bzkA. Instead of attempting the difficult task of trying to replace the steadying veteran presence of Sacy and pANcada, LOUD chose to pick up promising teenagers cauanzin and tuyz , leaving IGL saadhak as the only player above the age of 19.

The roster still carries immense firepower, and with new coach fRoD assisting saadhak with strategies, woe to foes who overlook what LOUD can do. An opening match against a struggling Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) yoman Chae Young-moon (채영문) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) at LOCK//IN may be just the warm up these young guns need to make a deep run.

At the end of the day, winning a title through a single elimination gauntlet is a daunting task for even the greatest of superteams, but the LATAM/BR teams will assuredly give us the showcase of partnered teams that LOCK//IN aims to provide. And if they win a title, there is no better place to do it than close to home.