Head of VCT explains the abolishing of Last Chance Qualifiers

While the best four teams in the world will collide in a blockbuster weekend of VALORANT esports action, the future of the VCT has been announced and has divided the professional community.

The new circuit for the VCT 2024 campaign has already been criticised for not making many changes to the strenuous calendar, with some teams fearing that another exhausting year is in store, especially for those teams qualifying for all of the international tournaments.

But one of the tweaks that did happen to the VCT 2024 structure saw LCQs get scrapped and Championship Points be resurrected from Riot Games' League of Legends archives to allow the more consistent performers to find a way to the elite stage.

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Head of VALORANT Esports explains Champions Points pivot

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Championship Points was a system used in LoL where teams accrue points throughout the season which will help them to qualify for the end-of-season parlay - Champions in VALORANT's case. 

Now that Riot is rolling this feature out again, Head of VALORANT Esports at Riot Games, Leo Faria, has now addressed the format tweak, claiming that this is a better way of deciding qualification to international events over LCQs.

"When we started talking about the next season and how we wanted to build things, one of our most important goals was that we want every competition to matter. We want every match to have stakes and to have a consequence for the rest of the season," said Faria.

"It's really hard to find a balance between rewarding your most recent performance - so if you win Stage One, you're going to Masters One, you win Stage Two, Masters Two - but also, how do we reward your season-long performances?"

The Champions Points have been rolled out into VCT 2024 to remove auto-qualification for the future events of the season, but make sure that teams also keep up their momentum through the season and prevent one-off wins from being favoured over consistency.

"One way to do that is to auto-qualify teams from one competition to the next. So for example, if you win Masters One, you qualify for Masters Two. But that creates other types of challenges. For example, if a team is auto-qualified Champions from Masters 1, are they really gonna give their best in Stage Two? Are they going to try to hide their game, so they come all out at Champions?" Faria continued.

"If you look at each one of those blocks individually, we don't need championship points - we can look at match records and look at the standings, and that's enough - but if you take a step back and look at the whole season, championship points help us do that."

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Head of VALORANT Esports on why LCQ’s are being scrapped

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With Champions Points being added, it will see the Last Chance Qualifiers will be sunsetted, with teams qualifying to Masters and Champions through the regional splits only. 

"We're still gonna reward the most recent performances though," said Faria.

"Championship points will allow us to reward the season-long performances, which in our minds is a much better solution than LCQ, which had its moments and served a good function, but we think Championship points will work better."

While the format for VCT 2024 is being put under the microscope, the 2023 campaign is coming to a thrilling conclusion with four teams from every corner of the globe left to try and get their mits on the elusive golden trophy.