2021 Valorant Champions

Number of slots for each region was based on the level of development of the countries/regions.

• Rich countries/regions (like North America, Brazil, Japan, South Korea) that have potential development in Valorant with huge player base, huge viewer base, will be given priority slot to attend directly, and teams just compete only in their local VALORANT Challengers to qualify for VALORANT Masters and accumulate points for a local Circuit Point standings.
• On the contrary, teams from less developed countries/regions must compete in their local competition at first to qualify VALORANT Challengers, then have to compete with foreigner teams in a larger area (like some countries in EMEA, Southeast Asia and Latin America) to qualify for VALORANT Masters and accumulate points for a shared Circuit Point standings.

Pools are based on teams' achievements in competitions of VALORANT Challengers and VALORANT Masters, their Circuit Point Standings, and estimated strength for each region in FPS esports.[3]

The group stage ran from December 1 to 7.[4] Sixteen teams were drawn into four groups with four teams in each group based on their seeding. Teams of the same region could not be placed in the same group. The group stage consisted of four double elimination brackets. All matches were best-of-three. The team that wins on Winner's bracket qualified as Seed #1 of that respective group in the knock-out stage, while the team that won in loser's bracket qualified as Seed #2.

The knockout stage began on December 8, culminating in the finals on December 12.[4] Eight teams were drawn into a single elimination bracket. The Seed #1 team of each group was drawn against the Seed #2 team of a different group. The teams from same group were be on opposite sides of the bracket, meaning they could play each other until the Finals. The knock-out stage consisted of one single elimination bracket. All matches were best-of-three, except for the finals, which was is best-of-five.