Riding the hype wave of the Ignition Series, BLAST has been confirmed as the organizer of the final installment of the European VALORANT Ignition Series: Twitch Invitational. The event will see four prominent teams compete for a €50,000 prize purse. All invited teams have confirmed their assistance, the official line up including FunPlus Phoenix, G2 Esports, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Team Liquid. This is the last chance for these European teams to showcase their skills before the off-season. Of course, this creates a very competitive and tense environment for the tournament—making fans all around the world excited for the event. The stakes are definitely high.
The four teams have already played against each other twice before. Once at the LVL Clash 2 Ignition Series and at the Allied Esports Odyssey. In both of these events, G2 Esports settled their position as superiors in both technique and gameplay. It is only natural the other teams will ache to snatch this title from them.
Scheduled on September 11, the tournament will be played in a double-elimination layout, with a best-of-three format. The Grand Finals will showcase a best-of-five match. This is the first time BLAST becomes involved in a VALORANT event. If this partnership is set for the long run, VALORANT esports scene will present an exponential growth. These are exciting times for fans everywhere.
Ever since its release, VALORANT was welcomed by the gaming community with an overwhelmingly positive reception. With a Metacritic score of 80%, a IGN.com rating of 9/10 and a PC Gamer score of 90%, VALORANT definitely took the FPS game division by storm. It is no wonder, then, that the game quickly rose in popularity amongst the e-sport community.
It comes to no surprise that this leverage would be used to further boost VALORANT’s prominence in the gaming scene. Relatively soon after it’s release, Riot Games announced the Ignition Series, a series of tournaments based upon partnerships with players, creators, teams and tournament organizers from all around the world. Seeking to create a positive yet competitive ecosystem for VALORANT, Riot Games is facilitating competitive play at scale by “unlocking best-in-class esports organizations to experiment with a diverse set of formats and lay the foundation for competitive VALORANT.”