With every Last Chance Qualifier concluded, Riot Games has seeded the groups for Valorant Champions 2023 and also revealed the opening matchups.
This year's Champions groups and opening matches are:
Group A
- Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov (Pacific) vs. KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Klaus Nicolas Ferrari Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro heat Olavo Marcelo (Americas LCQ)
- 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) (China) vs. Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin (EMEA LCQ #1)
Group B
- Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #19 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le Apoth Vincent Le jawgemo Alexander Mor (Americas) vs. 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) (China)
- FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #7 MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban (EMEA) vs. T1 T1 Korea Rank #3 Sayaplayer Ha Jeong-woo (하정우) Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo Carpe Lee Jae-hyeok (이재혁) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) xccurate Kevin Susanto (Pacific)
Group C
- FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 Leo Leo Jannesson Derke Nikita Sirmitev Boaster Jake Howlett Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder (EMEA) vs. ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #8 Laz Ushida Koji yuran Yushin Hato hiroronn Hiroki Yanai Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe (Pacific LCQ)
- NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #7 crashies Austin Roberts Victor Victor Wong Marved Jimmy Nguyen Ethan Ethan Arnold Demon1 Max Mazanov (Americas) vs. Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #5 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) (China)
Group D
- Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #15 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Enzo Enzo Mestari Mistic James Orfila Keiko Georgio Sanassy (EMEA) vs. Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #6 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Zyppan Pontus Eek SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin ardiis Ardis Svarenieks (EMEA LCQ #2)
- DRX DRX Korea Rank #1 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) vs. LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 saadhak Matias Delipetro Less Felipe de Loyola tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira (Americas)
The groups were drawn following the same rules used for Masters Tokyo. Teams from the same region may not be placed in the same group, and will be moved to the next available slot. If they were drawn into the last slot of Group D, they will swap with the team immediately before them until the draw is declared valid. The only exception is for the EMEA LCQ #2 team, NAVI, which were placed in the same group as another EMEA team.
The seeding pools and regional rankings were determined by each team's Masters performance respective to their region's counterparts, with LCQ teams receiving the lowest regional seed.
Champions 2023 will use the same groups format of previous years, with four GSL-style groups that each qualify two teams to the playoffs. Riot has not confirmed if the eight-team playoffs stage will be single or double-elimination like in past years.
Valorant's capstone event of the year runs from August 6 to 27 in Los Angeles. Most of the competition will be held at the Shrine Auditorium, while the final three days of play will be hosted in the KIA Forum. Tickets are on sale and can be found here.