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 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) Muggle Tang Shijun (唐时俊) CHICHOO Wan Shunji (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东) 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 #2 Autumn Kale Dunne Life Qu Donghao (瞿东豪) AAAAY Zhang Yang (张杨) BerLIN Zhang Bolin (張柏霖) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) ZiXuan Liu Junwei (刘俊伟) , 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 #7 B3ar Yang Zhanxiong (杨瞻雄) whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) Yosemite Wang Lei (王磊) Biank Zhong Jianfei (钟剑飞) .

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.