NEWS

VCT LOCK/IN Sao Paulo: Format, Schedule and Details

January 18, 2023

Riot Games announced today the official tournament details for LOCK//IN, the largest event in the history of the VALORANT Champions Tour. From February 13th to March 4th, 32 of the best teams in the world will battle it out at the Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo for three weeks of intense competition.

VCT LOCK/IN Sao Paulo: Teams

LOCK//IN will see every team from the Americas, Pacific, EMEA leagues as well as two invited representatives from China.

AMERICAS Teams	PACIFIC Teams	EMEA Teams	Invited Teams from China
100 Thieves	DetonatioN FocusMe	BBL Esports	EDG
Cloud9	DRX	Fnatic	FPX
Evil Geniuses	Gen.G	FUT Esports
FURIA	Global Esports	Giants
Kru Esports	Paper Rex	Karmine Corp
Leviatán	Rex Regum Qeon	KOI
LOUD	T1	NAVI
MiBR	Talon Esports	Team Heretics
NRG	Team Secret	Team Liquid
Sentinels	ZETA Division	Team Vitality

VCT LOCK/IN Sao Paulo: Format

To accommodate the largest number of teams Riot Games has hosted at a single event, the tournament will use a single elimination format. Subsequent events will return to a double elimination format.

To maximize the number of inter-regional matches at LOCK//IN, a random draw process was implemented that paired teams from different regions in the first round, while also maximizing the possibility of inter-regional matches for the second round.

First, regions were paired into 16 first round match-ups, with each match-up consisting of two team slots.

EMEA vs PACIFIC – 5 match-ups
AMERICAS vs PACIFIC – 5 match-ups
AMERICAS vs EMEA – 4 match-ups
CHINA vs AMERICAS – 1 match-up
CHINA vs EMEA – 1 match-up

Each team slot was assigned a random number from 1-10 to account for the 32 teams in attendance. (Americas 1-10, EMEA 1-10, PACIFIC 1-10, China 1-2). In line with our goal to maximize geographically diverse competition, teams from China were paired with team slots from the AMERICAS and EMEA.

Second, the 16 match-ups were distributed across two sides of the single elimination bracket to maximize inter-regional matches for the first two rounds. For this event, the two sides of the bracket will be referenced as Alpha & Omega:

Alpha Matches	Omega Matches
AMERICAS vs PACIFIC – 3	AMERICAS vs PACIFIC – 2
EMEA vs PACIFIC – 2	EMEA vs PACIFIC – 3
EMEA vs AMERICAS – 2	EMEA vs AMERICAS – 2
CHINA vs EMEA -1	CHINA vs AMERICAS – 1

Finally, a random draw assigned each of the 32 teams a number from 1-10 that corresponded to their region and an already placed team slot, giving us our final bracket.

VCT LOCK/IN Sao Paulo: Schedule

LOCK//IN will consist of three stages of competition:

Alpha Matches – February 13 -19
- Alpha Matches will play out until two teams remain.
- Each match will be a Best-of-Three.
Omega Matches – February 22 – 27
- Omega Matches will play out until two teams remain.
- Each match will be a Best-of-Three.
Finals Stage
- The remaining four teams play through the Semifinals and Finals until a champion is crowned.
- Matches in this stage will be Best-of-Five.