VALORANT Champions Tour 2027 sets Austin as season finale city

Riot Games has published its full 2027 VALORANT Champions Tour calendar, confirming more than 50 tournaments across 15 cities and sending the season-ending Champions event to Austin for the first time.

The schedule was reported by Sheep Esports and TheSpike.gg on 15 October, according to Esports Insider, and spans Open Qualifiers, Kickoff, Cups, Masters and Champions, with more than $7m in prize money attached across the season.

Rather than concentrating regional events in a single host city, Riot has spread each stage across multiple countries, a structural choice the circuit has leaned into for 2027.

The six partner organisations across EMEA, Americas and Pacific will receive direct entry only to their own regional Kickoff tournament. From there they must compete against teams that have advanced through Open Qualifiers to reach every subsequent event. Chinese partner and visitor organisations operate under a separate arrangement, receiving invitations to both Kickoff and Cups within VCT's China partnership structure.

Kickoff runs from 14 January to 7 February across São Paulo, Berlin, Bangkok and Hangzhou, followed by the first Masters in Seoul from 20 February to 3 March. Cup 1 takes place between 29 April and 23 May in Mexico City, Warsaw, Manila and Wuhan, before a second Masters lands in Valencia from 5 to 20 June.

Cup 2 follows from 5 to 29 August across Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Tokyo and Shanghai. The season closes with Champions and the Game Changers Championship running concurrently in Austin from 16 September to 10 October.

Open Qualifiers begin in November 2026, giving unaffiliated teams their first route into the 2027 Kickoff fields. Riot has attached financial support to that pathway: teams advancing from Open Qualifiers into Kickoff or a Cup receive $100,000 per event, teams reaching Masters receive $200,000, and an open team that qualifies all the way to Champions receives $400,000. Every team competing at the Game Changers Championship receives $100,000 regardless of result.

According to the figures reported by Esports Insider, an open team progressing strongly through the full calendar could earn more than $1m across the season purely through these support payments, separate from prize money won at individual events.

Anna Donlon, Head of VALORANT Studios, and Leo Faria, Global Head of VALORANT Esports, described the Open Qualifiers as a stage where emerging competitors face established rosters, with local standouts given a route to crown themselves regional heroes before the strongest sides progress into Cups, Masters and Champions, as relayed by Sheep Esports.

With the calendar locked in well ahead of the season, teams, sponsors and broadcasters now have a fixed venue footprint to plan around, starting with November's Open Qualifiers and running through to Austin's October finale.