It's a new year, and a new competition: the VCT is now a closed circuit made up of 30 partnered teams. Alongside two Chinese rosters, they've all been gathered in São Paulo for VCT LOCK//IN this month to showcase their newest teams and get their region a headstart in 2023.
The 32-team, two-bracket tournament kicks off on February 13. The teams will be fighting not only for themselves, but also for their region — the LOCK//IN champions will award their region one extra slot for this year's only Masters event, come this Summer.
VLR.gg has compiled everything that you need to know for the four-week tournament, which is split into three big stages, the first of which being the Alpha Bracket.
Format
The 32 teams have been split into two 16-team brackets: the Alpha and Omega bracket, named after the lore's Alpha and Omega Earths. Every match in these brackets will be a Bo3, where each team's life will be on the line, as the brackets are single-elimination.
Alpha Bracket's teams are:
- NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #4 crashies Austin Roberts Victor Victor Wong Marved Jimmy Nguyen Ethan Ethan Arnold Demon1 Max Mazanov (Americas)
- Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #8 Xeppaa Erick Bach vanity Anthony Malaspina OXY Francis Hoang (Americas)
- Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #1 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le Apoth Vincent Le jawgemo Alexander Mor (Americas)
- MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #3 jzz João Pedro mazin Matheus Araújo artzin Arthur Araujo RgLMeister Matheus Rodigoli frz Leandro Gomes (Americas)
- LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 Quick Gabriel Lima saadhak Matias Delipetro Less Felipe de Loyola tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira (Americas)
- KOI KOI Europe Rank #84 kamo Kamil Frąckowiak ShadoW Tobias Flodström grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko starxo Patryk Kopczynski sheydos Bogdan Naumov (EMEA)
- Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin (EMEA)
- Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #32 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjy David Fish paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski stand-in Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius (EMEA)
- Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #9 MAGNUM Martin Penkov tomaszy Tomás Machado N4RRATE Marshall Massey marteen Martin Pátek sh1n Ryad Ensaad (EMEA)
- BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #40 Elite Efe Teber pAura Melih Karaduran Brave Eren Kasırga reazy Kaan Ürpek QutionerX Doğukan Dural (EMEA)
- DetonatioN FocusMe DetonatioN FocusMe Japan Rank #4 Medusa An Min-cheol (안민철) neth Yusuke Matsuda Meiy Ibuki Seki popogachi Souta Morita Anthem Yoshitaka Enomoto (Pacific)
- Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Meteor Kim Tae-O (김태오) Lakia Kim Jong-min (김종민) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) (Pacific)
- DRX DRX Korea Rank #2 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) BuZz Yu Byung-chul (유병철) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) (Pacific)
- Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov Monyet Cahya Nugraha (Pacific)
- Talon Esports Talon Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #32 Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam Surf Thanachart Rungapajaratkul lenne Lim You Xiang Lionel ban Joseph Seungmin Oh Governor Peter No (Pacific)
- FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix China Rank #3 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) (China)
Prize Pool
There are $500,000 USD on the line in Brazil, half as much as money for double the teams. The prize distribution is as follows:
- 1st place: $100,000
- 2nd place: $60,000
- 3rd-4th place: $40,000
- 5th-8th place: $25,000
- 9th-16th place: $10,000
- 17th-32nd place: $5,000
Unlike last year, there are no VCT Points up for grabs. Whichever region comes out on top will have an extra slot at this year's Masters events, hosted in Japan later this year.
Teams will also collect 50% of net proceedings from the LOCK//IN Capsule. The limited edition capsule collection includes the Misericórdia knife, which has four variants (one for the VCT, three for each superregion), three regionally themed cards, and a spray. The capsule has been on sale since Feb. 8, and will be in the game's shop until March 7.
Schedule (Alpha Bracket)
Monday, February 13
- 9:00 AM PST | 6:00 PM CET | 2:00 AM JST - KOI vs. NRG Esports
- 12:00 PM PST | 9:00 PM CET | 5:00 AM JST - DetonatioN FocusMe vs. Giants Gaming
Tuesday, February 14
- 9:00 AM PST | 6:00 PM CET | 2:00 AM JST - FunPlus Phoenix vs. Karmine Corp
- 12:00 PM PST | 9:00 PM CET | 5:00 AM JST - BBL Esports vs. DRX
- 3:00 PM PST | 12:00 AM CET | 8:00 AM JST - Cloud9 vs. Paper Rex
Wednesday, February 15
- 9:00 AM PST | 6:00 PM CET | 2:00 AM JST - Team Heretics vs. Evil Geniuses
- 12:00 PM PST | 9:00 PM CET | 5:00 AM JST - MIBR vs. Talon Esports
- 3:00 PM PST | 12:00 AM CET | 8:00 AM JST - Gen.G vs. LOUD
Thursday, February 16
- Dark Day (no matches scheduled)
Friday, February 17
- 9:00 AM PST | 6:00 PM CET | 2:00 AM JST - Quarterfinal #1
- 12:00 PM PST | 9:00 PM CET | 5:00 AM JST - Quarterfinal #2
Saturday, February 18
- 9:00 AM PST | 6:00 PM CET | 2:00 AM JST - Quarterfinal #3
- 12:00 PM PST | 9:00 PM CET | 5:00 AM JST - Quarterfinal #4
Sunday, February 19
- 9:00 AM PST | 6:00 PM CET | 2:00 AM JST - Semifinal #1
- 12:00 PM PST | 9:00 PM CET | 5:00 AM JST - Semifinal #2
Broadcast
VCT LOCK//IN will give out exclusive drops, which means that you can earn in-game rewards from watching official streams. If you connect your Valorant account with your Twitch or YouTube account, you may be rewarded in-game with a LOCK//IN-themed title and buddy.
The "Locked In" title can be earned by watching a live game from February 13 to March 4, and the Dad Hat Buddy by catching the streams on March 4.
English Broadcast Talent
- Yinsu Collins (Host)
- Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez (Host)
- James "Dash" Patterson (Host)
- Seth "Achilios" King (Analyst)
- Mimi "aEvilcat" Wermcrantz (Analyst)
- Lauren "Pansy" Scott (Commentator)
- Michael "hypoc" Robins (Commentator)
- Mitch "MitchMan" McBride (Commentator)
- Tom "Tombizz" Bissmire (Commentator)
- Brennon "Bren" Hook (Commentator)
- Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson (Commentator)
- Doug "EsportsDoug" Cortez (Commentator)
- Arten "Ballatw" Esa (Commentator)
- David "prius" Kuntz (Observer)
- Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo (Observer)
- Felix "Synga" Regitz (Observer)
- Nicholas "Yehty" Tesolin (Observer)
Streams
- twitch.tv/valorant
- twitch.tv/VALORANT_ES1
- twitch.tv/valleague_fr
- twitch.tv/grunexcom
- twitch.tv/valorantleague_east
- twitch.tv/leetesport
- twitch.tv/esportsfinland
- twitch.tv/valorantleague_tr
- twitch.tv/valorantmc_ua
- twitch.tv/valorant_br
- twitch.tv/VALORANT_LA
- twitch.tv/valorant_kr
- twitch.tv/valorant_jpn
- twitch.tv/nodwingaming
- twitch.tv/valorant_ph
- twitch.tv/valorant_th
- twitch.tv/valorant_id
- twitch.tv/valorant_tw
- English YouTube
- Balkan YouTube
- Turkish YouTube
- South Asia YouTube
- Chinese YouTube
- Filipino YouTube
- Vietnamese YouTube
- Thai YouTube
- Indonesian YouTube
- Taiwanese YouTube
- LATAM Youtube
Coverage
VLR.gg is covering all of LOCK//IN in our event hub, which includes our live match ticker and stats to comb over. The event also features pick'ems, which are open until the games start.