Riot Games sets import rules for partnered VALORANT teams in 2023

The developer wants to maintain "regional identity."

Photo by Colin Young-Wolff via Riot Games

Riot Games has determined that the 30 teams that made it into VALORANT‘s partnership program are allowed to have only one import player in 2023.

Recommended Videos

“In order to maintain the regional identity of the VCT Participating Teams that compete in a global competition and to encourage the type of regional identification that is important to fans and sponsors, each Team must maintain, at all times during the Season, at least four (4) Team Members on its starting roster who are Residents,” Riot said in the official Roster Construction Rules document for VCT 2023.

The leagues for VCT 2023 will be Americas (North America, Brazil, and Latin America), EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), and Pacific. The countries inside each of these demographic regions are defined as League Territory, as per Riot’s ruling.

“For example, the United States and Brazil are part of the Americas League Territory, and Germany and Nigeria are part of the EMEA League Territory,” Riot said. This effectively means that one of the five North American organizations in the America league (Sentinels, Cloud9, 100 Thieves, NRG, and Evil Geniuses) can have a full Brazilian roster if they want to. But these teams can only have one player from EMEA or Pacific, for example.

T1, who is a Pacific league partner, currently has a roster almost entirely comprised of North American players and will have to drop almost all of them to complete the relocation.

These import rules will make the lives of teams that were turned down for a partnership spot harder. OpTic Gaming and XSET, for example, failed to secure a franchising spot, and the only way their rosters can stay together is if an organization from the Americas league picks them up. These rosters can’t relocate to an organization based in EMEA or Pacific.

VCT 2023 will kick off with an inaugural tournament in São Paulo, Brazil featuring all 30 partnered teams.

Author
Image of Leonardo Biazzi
Leonardo Biazzi
Staff writer and CS:GO lead. Leonardo has been passionate about games since he was a kid and graduated in Journalism in 2018. Before Leonardo joined Dot Esports in 2019, he worked for Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte. Leonardo also worked for HLTV.org between 2020 and 2021 as a senior writer, until he returned to Dot Esports and became part of the staff team.