Today, Riot Games announced the Ignition Series, the first official tournament series for VALORANT. In the announcement, they describe the competitive culture that developed around the game throughout its closed beta, and how the series will capitalize on the momentum. To do so, Riot Games has partnered with more than 20 esports organizations that will host and design their own unique VALORANT events.

Events announced today include the G2 Esports VALORANT Invitational, and a tournament at Japan’s largest esports event, Rage, both from June 19th to June 21st. G2’s event will have a twist, as 8 teams with 8 captains will go head to head, but captains will not know who their teammates are until the day before the tournament. The Rage tournament will be more traditional, as established teams like DetonatioN Gaming and JUPITER will be invited to compete for a winner-take-all prize of 500,000 yen. These events are for EMEA regions and Japan respectively, though more are confirmed on the VALORANT website. Future event regions are listed as “North America, Brazil, Latin America, Korea, Japan, South East Asia, Oceania, Europe, Russia, Turkey, and the Middle East.”

The Ignition Series will be supported through Riot Games’ channels and has a dedicated page on the games website. More information and updated event schedules will be available on that page. With this being the game’s first official tournament series for VALORANT, Riot Games will be “sharing lessons between tournament organizers to improve the experience week over week.” Expect changes as the series progresses, as they assure fans that they are “actively working with the development team on features that will help make it easier to watch as well as opportunities that will provide a level of competition beyond the ranked system.” For more information on the G2 Esports Invitational, visit the G2 Esports website. More on the RAGE tournament is available on the event’s website.