Riot Games have announced their 2021 plans for Valorant in Southeast Asia. The company is partnering with seven different companies in an attempt to organise an official competitive structure across SEA, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
This includes professional esports as well as collegiate partners. The standard esports partners will organise exclusive tournaments and become the backbone of the Valorant esports scene in SEA. The collegiate partners are working with colleges and universities in the region to develop lower level tournaments for students looking to break into the esport.
The partners are spread across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They are as follows,
- The Gaming Company: Organising all professional esports for Singapore and Malaysia as well as Malaysia’s collegiate tournaments
- Professional Gamers League & Eliphant: Organising all collegiate esports in Singapore
- ESL: Organising all professional and collegiate level tournaments in Thailand
- ONE Up: Organising all professional and collegiate level tournaments in Indonesia
- Mineski & AcadArena: Organising all professional and collegiate level tournaments in the Philippines
- Talon: Will host all professional and collegiate tournaments in Hong Kong along with organizing all professional tournaments in Taiwan.
- Taiwan Mobile & TSL: Will host all collegiate tournaments in Taiwan.
This new push for Valorant esports in SEA comes after the success of their first tournament in SEA, The Valorant Pacific Open. It was a series of regional tournaments that began in July of this year as a part of the Valorant Ignition Series. The tournaments highlighted a number of professional teams in the region and began to build a brand recognition for the esports franchise.
As well as co-ordinating local and regional tournaments, each of the partners will also run SEA qualifiers for the first official Riot Games sanctioned event, First Strike. This is a global tournament that aims to crown the official Valorant champion of each region.
