UPDATE: This article has been updated to reflect the latest announcement of an invited team.
Red Bull Home Ground, one of the biggest OFF//SEASON events of 2022, is back again this year. The tournament will take place between November 3-5 and will be held at the historic Sumo arena Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan.
The first invited team is 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #7 zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk , who won the event last year in Manchester after beating the likes of Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #8 Xeppaa Erick Bach Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo v1c Victor Truong moose Kaleb Jayne OXY Francis Hoang , KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete mta Nicolás González Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro , and Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #8 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso . 100 Thieves won the event without dropping a single series, only losing two maps in the group stage overall.
ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #2 Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani SyouTa Shota Aoki Xdll Yuto Mizomori have also been invited, marking the second OFF//SEASON tournament the Japanese roster has been invited to. Their first and only participation was in last year's Gwangju Esports Series Asia, where the team finished third under DRX DRX Korea Rank #5 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) and Talon Esports Talon Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #16 Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam primmie Papaphat Sriprapha ban Joseph Seungmin Oh Governor Peter No .
The third invite has been handed out to Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #8 Xeppaa Erick Bach Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo v1c Victor Truong moose Kaleb Jayne OXY Francis Hoang , who were last year's runners-up. After a strong groups run that only featured a loss to FOKUS FOKUS Europe Rank #21 hoody Aaro Peltokangas YaBoiLewis Lewis Hughes Mistic James Orfila al0rante Felix Brandl xuss Tselmeg Tsolmon , they defeated KRÜ in the semifinals but were struck down by 100T 3-0 in the grand final. The fourth Home Ground will be Cloud9's return to an international LAN for the first time since LOCK//IN, nearly 260 days later.
100 Thieves will look to defend their trophy this year. (Photo by Joe Brady/Red Bull Content Pool)
SCARZ SCARZ Japan Rank #9 Medusa An Min-cheol (안민철) Anthem Yoshitaka Enomoto LOB Lim Byung-gun (임병건) Satwoshi Yoshiii John Yoshiharu Kawakami were the fourth squad added to the list after a formidable year in Japan's Challengers League. After placing third in Split 1, the team shuffled players around and climbed to a near-flawless run in Split 2, claiming the Japanese championship with just two losses on record. SCARZ attended the Pacific Ascension tournament, which they finished second to BLEED BLEED Asia-Pacific Rank #22 .
The penultimate invite was handed out to DRX DRX Korea Rank #5 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) . The Korean titans have been one of the most consistent squads internationally, reaching every but one of the international VCT LANs. After a good run at LOCK//IN and VCT Pacific, DRX have struggled to make waves abroad, most recently placing top six at Champions 2023.
FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder received the final invite for Home Ground, coming off of a stellar year. The team has lost a total of three matches this year, two of them at Valorant Champions 2023 to LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #2 dgzin Douglas Silva v1nny Vínicius Gonçalves pANcada Bryan Luna tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira . FNATIC have already beat three of the invited teams on this list, and will return to Tokyo in chase of a second trophy after flawlessly conquering Masters earlier this year.
Last year, Red Bull held qualifiers for EMEA and Turkey while this year, open and closed qualifiers will be held in EMEA and Japan. The two winning teams will join six invited teams from across the world at the Red Bull Home Ground finals in Japan.
The team list for Home Ground 4 is currently:
- 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #7 zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk
- ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #2 Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani SyouTa Shota Aoki Xdll Yuto Mizomori
- Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #8 Xeppaa Erick Bach Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo v1c Victor Truong moose Kaleb Jayne OXY Francis Hoang
- SCARZ SCARZ Japan Rank #9 Medusa An Min-cheol (안민철) Anthem Yoshitaka Enomoto LOB Lim Byung-gun (임병건) Satwoshi Yoshiii John Yoshiharu Kawakami
- DRX DRX Korea Rank #5 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민)
- FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder
- EMEA Qualifier
- Japan Qualifier