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The VALORANT Champions 2022 is the pinnacle of competition for a pro player. In this year, it will be no different as the best of the best stand to rough it out in almost three weeks of epic LAN gameplay. Read on to see who we think will stand out among the teams in Istanbul.
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In Masters Berlin, moneyline bets are as easy as it gets. Since all matches are held in best-of-threes, simply predict which team gets to two map wins first and voilà. This is the perfect type of bet for those just starting to get into VALORANT. As it is in business, predicting an upset would mean a greater reward for the greater risk that you put into your bet. As such, doing your research early on could net you good gains to take home!
Best betting sites to use for Moneyline betting: bet365, Betway
Total betting is the next step for those who want to up their game. It works in the same way as over/under betting where you predict if the game will go over or under a score or metric. In VALORANT, total betting refers to predicting one of two things. Either if a series will go over or under a certain number of games or if the game at hand will reach over or under a certain number of rounds.
It can be useful to look at stat platforms that we mentioned earlier on (such as THESPIKE.GG) to see the patterns in a team’s playstyle. In VALORANT Champions 2021, Acend averaged around 20.64 rounds in their wins. The team only took losses in Icebox, Breeze, and Fracture. Likewise, you can do the same for maps won to see whether teams like to play it close (2-1) or close out their series in one fell swoop. These are good metrics to set a baseline on if you want to proceed with total betting.
Best betting sites to use for Prop betting: Rivalry, GG.BET
As its name suggests, handicap betting puts a handicap in the favor of the match by requiring them to win by a set margin for it to be considered a win. Just as in total betting, you can place handicap bets for maps and rounds as well. Handicap bets are easier explained by example.
For instance, a +1.5 map handicap for a best-of-three series means that the team you’re betting on only needs to win one (1) game to secure your payout. On the other hand, a -1.5 map handicap means that they need to win in a straight 2-0. This puts the burden on the stronger team to win convincingly when compared to the +1.5 map handicap which doesn’t require the team you’re betting on to win the series.
Round handicaps work in the same way but work towards 13 (the number of rounds it takes to win a VALORANT game). For example, you want to place a -4.5 round handicap on FunPlus Phoenix against Paper Rex. That means that they need to win with a score of 13-8 at the maximum for your bet to be considered a win. Meanwhile, a +4.5 round handicap means that the team only needs to reach 9 round wins in order to reach the threshold to win.
Best betting sites to use for Prop betting: Pinnacle
Lastly, we have propositional betting which is one of the more difficult betting formats. In VALORANT, there are occurrences in-game that do not necessarily decide the game such as first bloods, the outcome of pistol rounds, overtime, and so much more. Through prop bets, you can put your game knowledge to the test and try to guess what will exactly go on in-game.
Be wary because this kind of betting needs a lot of research, but of course, has a higher payoff. Predicting who will first plant the spike, if a player will be able to ace the opposing team, or even a team ace are among the few ways you can place prop bets as of right now. Though you won’t always be able to find these bets up and running, it can be fun to test your hand at them when you do get the chance!
Best betting sites to use for Prop betting: Rivalry
In the year leading up to Champions, challengers have risen in the hopes of making a name for themselves as the game’s greats. Sentinels, Acend, OpTic Gaming have all fallen to make way for FunPlus Phoenix to come alive in Masters Copenhagen. But in the past year, it’s not just the West that’s been making moves in the VALORANT Champions Tour. Teams like Paper Rex from Southeast Asia, ZETA DIVISION from Japan, and LOUD from Brazil have all proven themselves on LAN. As such, you can never count anyone out when it comes to betting on VALORANT Champions.
VALORANT Champions is the end all be all of competition in the game’s professional circuit – much like the Worlds of League of Legends or The International of Dota 2. All the tournaments year-round culminate at Champions where all of VALORANT’s competitive regions go head-to-head to seek the one true champion.
The stage is set for #VALORANTChampions pic.twitter.com/paV7wLx8S3 — VALORANT Champions Tour 🇹🇷 (@ValorantEsports) August 14, 2022
The stage is set for #VALORANTChampions pic.twitter.com/paV7wLx8S3
— VALORANT Champions Tour 🇹🇷 (@ValorantEsports) August 14, 2022
Teams can compete in Champions through winning VALORANT Masters and accruing enough circuit points to qualify for the tourney. The VALORANT Champions Tour’s global finale will be running from August 31st all the way through September 18th in Istanbul, Turkey.
VALORANT was released on June 2, 2020 and burst onto the scene being hailed as the next billion-dollar esports franchise. In the year to come, the newly-launched tactical shooter would come to have 14 million monthly average users (MAU) and counting. As players started populating their servers, VALORANT launched their esports initiative the VALORANT Champions Tour which started in 2021. The international circuit starts at the grassroots with the VALORANT Challengers series where teams and players can register and compete for a spot at the VALORANT Masters.
Riot Games has announced the 2022 season of VCT tournament timeline including a new Game Changers global event at the end of the year. #VCT pic.twitter.com/UJzm8aSgeR — Liquipedia VALORANT (@LiquipediaVAL) December 10, 2021
Riot Games has announced the 2022 season of VCT tournament timeline including a new Game Changers global event at the end of the year. #VCT pic.twitter.com/UJzm8aSgeR
— Liquipedia VALORANT (@LiquipediaVAL) December 10, 2021
In VALORANT Masters, the best of the best are pit against one another to see who stands atop among all the regions and countries of the world. The Masters tourneys fill the same shoes that Majors do in esports games like Dota 2 and CS:GO. VALORANT’s competitive period is divided into Stage 1 and Stage 2. Last year, North America and Europe dominated the stage with Sentinels, then Gambit Esports, and finally, Acend lifting the throne at VALORANT Champions 2021.
In 2022, the story is looking to play out the same way with OpTic Gaming winning in Stage 1 and FPX coming out on top in Stage 2. Although it’s tempting to say that EMEA will be lifting the trophy once again in Champions, we doubt the rest of the regions will be giving it up without a fight.
Already a year into the VALORANT Champions Tour, it seems that Riot is already listening to its community and upping the tournament’s competitiveness by levelling up its format. Although it will still follow the same GSL-style group play in the Group Stage, playoffs will finally be double-elimination with the Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final played out in best-of-fives.
But to start off Champions, the qualified sixteen (16) teams will first be divided into groups of four based on seeding – just like last year. This seeding is based on the team’s performance in their region and their region’s performance in past international tournaments. In the Group Stage, teams will then be seeded into a double-elimination bracket of best-of-threes with the Top 2 teams in each group heading into the Playoffs. All matches in the Group Stage and Playoffs will be played in best-of-threes, save for the upper and lower bracket finals which will be best-of-five series.
Champions represents the absolute best of what every competing region can offer. And in 2022, Riot introduced the East Asia Last Chance qualifiers to give Eastern teams from Korea, Japan, and now China another chance at Champions. The region is only starting to field teams to compete in VALORANT after the game just officially released in the past year. Although the region has yet to have its own league much like the rest of the world, China will soon catch up in the hopes of being a dominant force in competitive VALORANT.
As the pinnacle of competition in VALORANT esports, the champion of Champions earns the right to be named the best team of the world in the VCT 2022 season. Aside from that, the top placing teams will be receiving a hefty share of the prize pool. Of which, the last Champions 2021 had a whopping $1,000,000 prize pool.
Until now however, the exact division between placements has yet to be decided. This article will be further updated when news is released.
The VALORANT Champions Tour 2022 gave us the most exciting year of competition in the game’s history thus far. The gap is closing and with that, means closer games with higher levels of gameplay to be had from competing teams. And In Champions, expect nothing but the best of what each region’s best teams can offer in Istanbul. Keep reading to see who we think will stand out in VALORANT Champions 2022.
To start off Champions, we’ll be seeing the tournament’s most aggressive teams go head-to-head in Group A. Out of the four teams, we expect Paper Rex to be the undisputed top seed of the group considering their impressive Finals finish in Masters Copenhagen. Paper Rex’s hyper aggressive playstyle leaves teams no room for error as they take advantage of every mistake they make. To follow behind them, Team Liquid hopes to make a deep run in Champions now that they’ve steadied their roster with Dmitriy “dimasick” Matvienko. Team Liquid’s history of experience goes all the way back to Masters Reykjavík in 2021 and have been known to be a consistent performer on the international stage.
However, be on the lookout for the beast from the east, China’s EDward Gaming. PRX’s Benedict “Benkai” Tan even went on to say that they were scared to face off against them in Groups. Meanwhile, Leviatán will be representing Latin America once again and although many would easily write them off, they did manage to take XSET down and force DRX and Fnatic to close Game 3s in Copenhagen playoffs.
In Group B, it feels like we’re all the way back in Iceland with, uncoincidentally, the Top 3 finalists of the Masters tourney. At the top of the iceberg, we expect OpTic Gaming to continue their dominant streak on LAN with players like Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker and Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen at the helm. OpTic has been such a consistent team in the past year even since their days as Team Envy in 2021. With their experience, they hope to reclaim the throne for North America at Champions.
In their shadow, Brazil’s LOUD closely trails the super team as the most hyped-up team at Champions. We reckon that LOUD want to redeem themselves after their subpar showing at Copenhagen and Champions is the place to do so. Though if any team has a chance to stand up to them, it would be Japan’s ZETA DIVISION who have been on the come up since making themselves known in Masters Berlin. Unfortunately, BOOM Esports have quite the wall to climb should they want to qualify for playoffs.
Let’s make it clear. Although this is, arguably, the closest group in Champions, FunPlus Phoenix are the favorites guaranteed to get out of Groups – nay, to win Champions. With the team’s adaptive playstyle and ability to flawlessly execute countless strategies, FPX were able to outclass Paper Rex in Copenhagen even with a 2-map ban disadvantage.
With that said, the second playoffs slot is up for anyone’s taking in Group C. XSET was the top seed for North America at Copenhagen but choked their way out of playoffs losing to LATAM’s Leviatán. Although KRÜ Esports has had its moments (such as taking down LOUD in Copenhagen or reaching playoffs in Berlin), the team’s ultimately been inconsistent in taking down top teams. Meanwhile, XERXIA has had a many close calls losing close 2-1 series against Team Liquid, FPX, and Northeption which have stopped them from qualifying for Groups time and again.
As such, we can see any one of these teams qualifying for playoffs should they finally overcome their demons and play their hearts out in Champions. Whether it’s XERXIA finally making playoffs or XSET and KRÜ cementing themselves as a competitive team in VALORANT.
In what seems like another throwback to the past year, these teams have all, in one Masters or another, competed at the highest level. Thus, we do know a little of what to expect from these teams heading into Champions. Fnatic have been on the uptrend in this year going from Bottom Four in Reykjavík to Top Four in Copenhagen. The signing of Enzo “Enzo” Mestari and Emir Ali “Alfajer” Beder have been game-changing for the team and transformed them to come alive.
Meanwhile, DRX continues their dynasty in Korea as still the best team from their region. Although many will ‘meme’ them for their curse of never reaching Top Four, the team did manage to give FPX a run for their money in groups despite eventually falling to them in the lower bracket.
This then leaves an opportunity for the underdogs 100 Thieves to perhaps take a series off the Korean overlords. 100T returns after about a year of failing to qualify for the international stage with a brand-new roster with Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk at its center. FURIA Esports comes into the conversation as well because even if they did bow out 0-2 in Groups last Champions, they were both 2-1 close losses.
Before you head on out, we just wanted to leave you with key reminders to help you on your journey in VALORANT Champions betting. If there’s one thing to say about this year’s Champions, it’s that there’s going to be a lot of variance. Teams are still optimizing how to play the new agent Fade and figuring out the nuances of the new map Pearl. With that said, a competition this close can have a lot of upsets to come and predicting those upsets will be your golden ticket. Our hint? Look towards teams with potential like EDward Gaming, ZETA Division, KRÜ Esports, and XERXIA with low risk, high reward odds that can give you good returns.
But before putting your foot in, don’t forget to always do your due diligence by properly researching the teams you’re betting on. Check platforms such as THESPIKE.GG, Valor Buff, and VLR.gg to get an idea of a team or player’s playstyle. Check what agents and maps each team have been playing in past tournaments and try to predict if they will continue to do well in the current meta. For the most success, we suggest streaming matches on YouTube channels such as VALORANT VODs to really know what you’re dealing with.
It's VALORANT’s follow-up year to the first-ever Champions and the competition is still as tight as ever. The game has changed so much in the past year and that means that teams have grown and adapted as well. As such, it can be hard to pick out a clear-cut winner that will take the trophy home at VALORANT Champions 2022.
However, if we were to put down our own money, we could easily see FunPlus Phoenix, OpTic Gaming, and Paper Rex do good damage in the tournament. Although teams like LOUD, DRX, and Fnatic follow closely behind among teams the community rally behind, we could easily see a dark horse like ZETA Division or EDward Gaming make a run through the competition should they rise to the challenge.
We recommend bet365 for moneyline bets, Rivalry for prop and total bets, Pinnacle for handicap betting and futures!
You can watch VALORANT Champions 2022 as it goes live on their official Twitch and YouTube channels. You can watch their livestreamed VODs on YouTube as well.
If we’re going to base our predictions on the past, OpTic Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix, and Paper Rex would have the highest chances of winning it all in Champions 2022. However, be on the lookout for underdogs in Japan, Brazil, and even East Asia.
This year, VALORANT Champions 2022 starts near the middle of the year on August 31 to September 18. This is to make way for all-new tournament circuits from October to December later in the year.
Thankfully for everyone who wants to watch quality VALORANT, the VALORANT Champions 2022 will now feature a double-elimination playoffs stage format after its GSL-style group stage involving sixteen of the world’s best teams.
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