Red Bull has partnered with AOC to launch Home Ground, a new Valorant tournament. The competition starts on January 28 and runs through January 31. It’s going to have some of the best Valorant teams in Europe fight for supremacy and a shot at the £24,000 prize pool.
Making the tournament a lot more exciting is the twist to the usual rules, which you can learn more about in the video below:
Just in case you weren’t able to watch that video, we’ll break it down for you. The tournament is going to have eight teams and so far those invited include:
- G2
- Team Liquid
- Guild Esports
- SUMN FC
- Futbolist
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
For the remaining two teams, one of the spots is for a special guest team that’s yet to be revealed. The remaining spot goes to the team that wins the qualifiers. The qualifiers have 20 teams with only four joining through a direct invite. The qualifiers take place on January 23 to 24.
Of the different teams, it’s G2 that hopes to reassert dominance having won each single Ignition Series event back in 2020. G2 shared that they hope to return stronger than ever and sweep the competition in Home Ground.
Going back to the tournament, what’s going to be the twist? The eight teams are paired in a single-elimination bracket. While all matches are Bo5, the first two games are the most crucial ones. Each team gets to pick their strongest map and have it declared as their home ground and are played first. If a team wins both home grounds, then they immediately win the match.
For fans watching the competition, the tournament will be brought to them by an excellent cast of broadcast talents from the UK. There’s Frankie “Frankie” Ward serving as the host with Luke “xilv” Davis being the Observer. Sharing their expertise and providing analysis are Lauren “Pansy” Scott and Michael “hypoc” Robins. The play-by-play commentary, meanwhile, has casters James “BanKs” Banks and Mitch “MitchMan” McBride in the role.
Home Ground is the first Valorant event to be organized by Red Bull and fans can view the matches at their Twitch channel here.
