Riot Games announced that it has teamed up with PAX in order to host the PAX Arena Valorant Invitational Powered by Seagate. This competition is scheduled for July 22 to July 26 and is the first of Riot’s Ignition Series. The competition is going to have 16 Pro Teams and four Influencer Teams fight it out for a large share of the $25,000 prize pool.
This is indeed good news for this new game considering that PAX has long been known as a festival where gamers can celebrate gaming culture. It should bring a lot of eyes to the Riot-developed shooter.
The tournament format includes initial matches with eight teams being able to move to the single-elimination quarterfinals. The four remaining teams then take part in the semifinals. In the Grand Finals, the final two teams fight in a best-of five series with the champion taking home $10,000.
For the first two days of the tournament, fans can watch the fights through the individual channels of the participating teams. By the third day, however, the fights are going to be shown on the official Twitch channel for PAX Arena. This is going to be hosted by WTFMoses with blow-by-blow accounts of the fights being casted by Goldenboy, Gaskin, Puckett, and Pansy. The tournament is also going to be streamed at the same time at Riot’s official Twitch channel for Valorant.
In a statement, PAX and Penny Arcade co-founder Jerry Holkins said that PAX has been called a home by gamers around the world for 16 years. He added that they are not only happy to welcome Valorant, but are also “thrilled to host the world’s best talent – in the matches, and behind the desk – for a virtual esports showdown that our extended PAX family can rally around.”
Meanwhile Matt Archambault, who heads the NA esports partnerships and business development over at Riot Games, revealed that “PAX events have been a staple in esports and gaming for years” and that they are “proud to partner with PAX to build on their traditional of bringing communities together, and start a legacy with Valorant esports in North America.” He went on to say that the tournament is something that fans surely don’t want to miss given the A-list broadcast talent and, of course, the top Valorant competitors in the region.
