One of the most anticipated StarCraft 2 tournaments is just around the corner, with the world's best players getting ready to fight for their share of $500,000 in prize money.
A legendary esports event, the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice is a CS:GO tournament held in Poland. In this guide, we'll go over all the participating teams, details about the schedule, as well as everything you need to know about IEM CS:GO betting!
The Dota Pro Circuit is in full flow. The next big tournament in this seasonal circuit is the PGL Arlington Major. Texas is the location, Esports Stadium Arlington is the venue of choice, and seventeen brilliant Dota 2 teams will be eyeing their chances here.
The LEC (League of Legends European Championship) is entering a new decade starting with the inaugural Winter split. From team rosters to an all-new tournament format, the league will be seeing much more competition.
In their efforts to embrace diversity, VALORANT introduced a ‘Game Changers' programme in February 2021 to their competitive lineup, aiming to create opportunities for women and marginalised genders within esports. Our VCT Game Changers betting guide below covers how this inclusive tournament series works, along with useful betting tips, predictions, and the latest odds.
Latest offer
100% up to €100
Welcome Offer
Up to €30 in Free Bets
100% up to €500
No Welcome Offer
100% up to €200
5% up to €500
Up To €40 Money Back
100% up to €50
As VALORANT continues to grow in popularity across the globe, so does its growing competitive scene – all the way from grassroots to semi-professional leagues. As a result, Riot Games took the initiative to make VALORANT esports a more inclusive space for all people, creating a more welcoming space for women and marginalised through VCT Game Changers.
Odds for this event will be added here as soon as they become available.
Through this tournament, Riot are hoping to break the barriers of play between genders and hopefully welcome a broader spectrum of talent to VALORANT esports. Remember too that this up-and-coming series only has room to grow in the coming future.
Below are three top tips worth bearing in mind when betting on this event. Don't forget to be on the lookout for betting bonuses as well as livestreams so that you can boost your bankroll while watching the action unfold in real time.
At the time of writing, Game Changers has competition all the way from North America, Brazil, Latin America, Southeast Asia, APAC (Asia Pacific) and the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa). Each of these regions have their own tournament series (with their own tournament format) in collaboration with Riot Games.
In North America, you'll find the VCT 2021: Game Changes North America Series and the almost-monthly Academy tournaments. Down south in Brazil, there are a host of tournaments held by a multitude of organisers, from Protocolo: Gêneses and Girl Power to Esportsmaker Spike Ladies. Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia and Latin America, a one-all-be-all tournament series spans across month: the VCT Game Changers APAC 2022 Series and the Radiant Energy Series, respectively.
And finally, the EMEA region features a wide variety of small, national tournaments to larger, VCT qualifers, such as the VCT GC 2022 EMEA Series 3.
With all these tournaments happening across the year, understanding which teams and regions to follow can get a bit overwhelming. Furthermore, since a majority of these tournaments are held with open qualifiers just as VCT’s own Challengers series, knowing who or what to back can get complicated in the long run.
As such, we advise you to bet on a region that you live in or that is close to you. Whether it’s because you genuinely enjoy their play or because it fits your timezone, this will help you keep an eye on things more easily.
The best way to start off on the right foot when betting on any tournament is to look at past results. However, the VCT Game Changers, while an excellent addition to VALORANT esports, is still in relative infancy compared to other competitions or leagues of its kind. This means there aren't many past records by players or teams available for punters.
While this is certain to change in the future, as far as betting is concerned, this does offer a slight advantage in that you won’t have to spend a lot of time or effort analysing previous winners and recent performances. As more tournaments take place and the years go by, it will be harder to keep track of everything.
In a competitive environment as young as Game Changers, it can be easy for dynasties to come and go – the short-lived dominance of Team SoloMid and G2 Esports in the early days of VALORANT would be an example. New tournaments allow you to witness how up-and-comers can pull the rug from underneath favourites and disrupt the competition.
The game itself is constantly being updated, which ultimately changes the meta. Some teams are better at adapting to the changes, while others have a tougher time. The same goes for roster changes; teams signing new players usually don’t perform as well from the get-go, while stronger teams may fall off a cliff if their star player leaves.
The truth is, the entire VALORANT esports environment changes on a regular basis, so you need to make sure to remain up to date. Otherwise, your bets won’t carry much weight, because they’ll be based on outdated information.
For the VCT Game Changers Championship, 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 also the perfect market for those just starting to get into the game itself. As it is with betting overall, predicting an upset would result in a greater reward for the greater risk that you took. As such, doing your research early on could net you good gains to take home!
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: whether a series will go over or under a certain number of matches, or if the game at hand will reach over or under a certain number of rounds.
Research is crucial for these markets, because they are tough to get right. Having said that, you can usually get ahead by analysing team performances in recent tournaments, using sites like THESPIKE.gg.
Handicaps work by handing advantages to the underdogs or disadvantages (“handicaps”) to the favourites, thus levelling the playing field for punters.
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 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 Cloud9 White against X10 Sapphire. That means that they need to win with a score of 13-8 at the maximum 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 of victory.
Propositional betting is one of the more difficult formats. In VALORANT, there are occurrences in-game that do not necessarily decide the match's outcome, such as First Blood, Pistol Rounds, Overtime, and so much more. Through prop bets, you need to put your game knowledge to the test in order to land successful wagers. Predicting who will first plant the spike, if a player will be able to ace the opposing team, or even a team ace are also options you'll find here.
Be wary, because this kind of betting needs a lot of research but, of course, has a higher payoff. 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!
While we still don’t have a lot of information about the specifics of the tournament, we do know what the format will look like. It’s rather simple:
The event will feature eight teams from six regions:
As for the prize pool, Riot Games still hasn’t released any info regarding the amount nor the finishing position distribution.
The event will take place in Berlin in the LEC Studio and will last from the 15th to the 20th of November 2022.
As with all esports tournaments, VALORANT’s VCT Game Changers Championship also features teams that are considered favourites to win the event.
Cloud9 White are an enigmatic team most of the time; they are capable of pulling wins against strong teams without breaking a sweat, but sometimes lose to weaker opponents in C-Tier tournaments. Nonetheless, this team has been participating in many events in 2022, so they’ve got the training and experience to take on a range of various contenders.
Their current roster consists of alexis, Jazzyk1ns, katsumi, meL, and Bob – the latter of whom joined the team in June 2022, while the other four have been together since October 2020.
Shopify Rebellion GC are the second team from North America. Highly capable, skilled, and ambitions, they did nevertheless fall into a slight slump in previous tournaments and suffered a few losses as a result; overall, though, they are strong and will pose a challenge to all other participating teams.
Players in their current roster are flowerful, sonder, KP, Lorri, and bENITA. Similar to Cloud9 White's lineup, bENITA joined the team in June 2022 while the rest of the roster has been together since June 2021.
VALORANT was released on June 2, 2020 and burst onto the scene while being hailed as the next billion-dollar esports franchise. In fact, it was the Champions Tour that marked their esports initiative, launched in 2021. Meanwhile, the international circuit started at the grassroots with the Challengers series, where teams and players can register and compete for a spot at the Masters.
To build on this, VCT Game Changers was kickstarted in February 2021, heralding a more inclusive environment for players while presenting the ultimate test of skill, determination, and willpower required of esports champions.
VALORANT has quickly become a highly popular esports game, having tapped into a still-underdeveloped source of talent stemming from Riot’s VCT Game Changers initiative. As time moves forward, it’s only natural that we will get to see more players come out of their shells and be welcomed into the competitive scene that’s long been dominated by men.
Encompassing various regions from North America to Southeast Asia, this all-new tournament series offers a multitude of exciting betting opportunities for punters! Remember the tips we outlined above, do your research, and with any luck, you'll land some handsome winnings.
LOOT.BET is our go-to for Moneyline wagers, while Rivalry and Betway are the best platforms for prop and total bets. For handicap betting, we recommend Pinnacle.
Teams from various esports countries are representing one of the six competing regions: North America, Brazil, LATAM (Latin America), EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), East Asia, and APAC (Asia Pacific).
Yes, it is! In fact, the VALORANT Champions Tour ends with the VCT Game Changers Championship; but Riot Games has still not confirmed whether or not the Game Changers Championship and the VCT Championship tournaments will merge in the future.
At the moment, Cloud9 White and Shopify Rebellion GC are the favourites to win the event, but it’s going to be tighter than ever with eight very strong teams competing for first place.
Game Changers kicked off in February 2021 as a way for Riot Games to create a more inclusive environment for women and marginalised genders in VALORANT esports.
Through our in-depth guides and reviews, we are focused on providing the best insights into esports betting.