Riot Games has already conquered the world of esports, with League of Legends played competitively around the globe. But now the company looks poised to start another phenomenon as Valorant, the company’s tactical FPS, starts it’s first league.
The Mildom Masters will be the world’s first Valorant league. It is based in Japan and pits a handful of local teams against each other. The competition will be one of the first major events for the game held in the country. Japan has developed a small but dedicated Valorant community. With the announcement of this league, it has now elevated itself to a more concrete position.
It has been only two months since the official release of Valorant and the game has exploded in popularity. But the competitive scene has lagged behind that of the games larger siblings, such as League of Legends and Team Fight Tactics. Perhaps due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, or out of a desire to let the scene grow organically, Riot Games has been decidedly hands off with the initial development of the competitive scene.
Numerous huge esports organisations have signed Valorant talent. The most recent names to jump into the game are G2 Esports and Team Liquid.
But despite these orgs taking the plunge, tournaments have been thin on the ground. There’s been only a limited number of invitationals and Twitch Rivals events making up the majority of the scene. The Mildom Masters, as initially reported by sponsor TheSpike.gg marks the league-format competition for the game.
Set to begin on August 20, the round-robin format league will see eight teams, including Absolute JUPITER (current favorites to win the league), SCARZ, REJECT, CYCLOPS, Sengoku Gaming, FAV gaming, SunSister Rapid, and ConnectGaming, compete for a ¥2,500,000 (£18,000) prize pool. After the league stage is concluded, the top four teams will advance to the playoffs. The Grand Finals will then commence on October 15.
In a statement released by TheSpike.gg, Keisuke Shimizu, Mildom’s Esports Director described the motivation behind the league: “I am very glad that we could announce VALORANT Mildom Masters. Mildom is a brand-new platform. We would like to contribute to making a basis for Japanese players by our platform so that they can achieve success worldwide. It is just a beginning. Please support us to make a dream come true.”
The event will be streamed live on Mildom, a japanese streaming platform, and co-streamed on Twitch.
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