VCT 2022 North America Stage 1 Challengers: Teams, format, prize pool and more

The 2022 Valorant Champions Tour is just around the corner for North America. Twelve of the regions best teams will go head-to-head over the next couple of weeks in the hopes of reaching the first Masters event. Will Sentinels continue their reign of terror across North America? or will another team rise to the occasion. Here is Esports.gg's complete fan guide to VCT Stage 1 Challengers.

Twelve of North America's best teams have made their way to the first Challengers event of the year. Due to their attendance at VCT Champs, Sentinels, Envy and Cloud9 automatically received an invitation to the event. 100 Thieves were the fourth and final team to round out the invitees due to having the most circuit points of the remaining teams.

The teams will be split into two groups of six. From there, they will compete in a single round-robin group format. The top four teams from each group will advance to the playoffs, while the bottom 2 teams will be eliminated. Each group stage match will be a best-of-three.

The eight remaining teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket. Each series will be a best-of-three excluding the lower bracket final and the grand final which will be a best-of-five. The two teams in the grand-final will receive automatic qualification to VCT Stage 1 Masters.

With VCT Stage 1, the twelve competing teams will be fighting for a share of the $200,000 prize pool as well as circuit points. Here is how the prize pool will be distributed amongst the competitors:

VCT Stage 1 Challengers kicks off Friday, February 11. Stay tuned to Esports.gg for the latest Valorant news and updates.