Riot has announced the inaugural collegiate Valorant season for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Details of the first ever College VALORANT Season, consisting of three tournaments across four server regions in North America. Read on to learn about our vision for the space, the season’s format, and see the RFP for interested operations partners. | rsaa.riotgames.com/2022/07/18/ann…

Schools will be divided into four regional divisions based on the location of the academic institution: North, South, East, and West. Competition is open to all interested collegiate squads in the United States and Canada, and will see three open regional tournaments be held during the Fall, Winter, and Spring seasons. Multiple teams from a single school can enter the competition at no cost, whether the organization is officially supported the institution or is a student-run club.

Over the course of the season, three tournaments will be held. Competitors will clash against other regional squads and will culminate in a singular Collegiate championship, with a number of finals matches being held live in Los Angeles, California in May or June 2023. The top two teams from each tournament will receive automatic bids for the championship, while the next top two teams based on a point system will also qualify for the finals.

While Riot has stated that they are working with a host of third party tournament administrators to make the CVAL (Collegiate Valorant Season) happen, they have encouraged other third party tournament operators to host competitions, given that their competition days do not conflict with CVAL match days or take place during the CVAL championship. Matches will be held on Saturday and Sunday, and will be best-of-three matches.

To compete, players must "be currently enrolled in a degree program lasting at least two years and in academic good standing at the school they are competing for as either a full-time student, or part time student that is a former full-time student within one academic year of their expected graduation."

Registration for the first Fall tournament begins on September 9 and closes on October 7. Phase one of competition will start on October 24 and run through November 6, while Phase 2 will begin on November 11 and run through December 12, with no matches taking place over Thanksgiving weekend. The Operations Request for Proposal (RFP) has already begun, and all submissions will be due August 1. Further details about the registration and competition dates for the Winter and Spring tournaments can be found in the full announcement.

The full graphic detailing what's to come in the upcoming academic year can be found here.