The top four teams in North America will not be competing until February.
Riot Games has recently announced in a press release that 100 Thieves, Envy, Cloud9 and Sentinels will be receiving direct invitations to the Challengers one main event. This means the four best teams in North America will not kick off their VCT campaign until February. Cloud9 fans will get to see their team in action at the Knights Arena Valorampage event later this week.
And speaking of the best of the best, we are recognizing the four NA teams that best represented the region in 2021 by inviting them directly to the Stage 1 Main Event, so please join us in welcoming the first four teams to advance: Sentinels, Envy, Cloud9, and 100 Thieves!
The news circulated after a report from Dot Esports, stating the Nerdstreet Gamers Website has it listed on their open qualifiers signup.
Riot Games and the Valorant esports team at the end of 2021 released the road map for its upcoming season. This included a change to the competitive scene in North America. 128 teams will be competing throughout January in the hope of qualifying for the VCT Stage 1: Challengers one main event.
How each team earned their spot in VCT Stage 1: Challengers Main Event
For Cloud9, Sentinels and Envy it is pretty simple. Those three teams were North America's representatives at VCT Champs at the end of 2021. As for 100 Thieves, they had the most amount of circuit points in comparison to the region.
Of all the teams in North America, without question Sentinels had the best year. The NA side had a dominant to 2021, winning multiple domestic events that were followed up by a win in VCT's first LAN. Although the end of the year may not have been their finest hour, Sentinels were still the only team to reach all three LAN events.
Team Envy and Cloud9 are probably the two best teams right now in North America. Starting with Envy, the NA side grew in strength and is poised to dominate the 2022 season. Envy was dominant at Stage 3 Masters Berlin, going undefeated up until the final where they would drop to EMEA powerhouse Gambit.
Lastly, Cloud9 punched their ticket to Champs for the NA VCT Last Chance qualifier. Throughout the year, Cloud9 had always shown promise.
Cloud9 even made their way to the Stage Two Challengers 2 Finals against Sentinels. What they were missing was an in-game leader. Up stepped Anthony "vanity" Malaspina. Following his arrival, Cloud9 instantly became the team everyone expected to be. C9 marched their way through the LCQ, taking down Rise 3-0 in the final.
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