The much anticipated North American First Strike tournament is finally around the corner. On Monday October 19, Riot announced the schedule for their first sponsored tournament titled “VALORANT First Strike” for North America. After the reveal of First Strike Europe, it was only a matter of time before Riot unveiled the tournament for North American fans.
The First Strike: NA Qualifiers are almost here! The competition will begin on October 26 with our first open, 128-team tournament, produced by @nerdstgamers.
Read all about it: https://t.co/wSVvM6sIGY
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) October 19, 2020
Starting on October 26, the Nerd Street Gamers Open Qualifier will fast-track the top 16 teams to the main NSG event. For the teams that don’t make the cut, there will be an additional qualifier later in November to see who competes in the main UMG Tournament later that month. The top 4 teams from both the NSG tournament and the UMG tournament will be the lucky rosters to battle in VALORANT First Strike North America.
The main event starts December 3, and will play out through the weekend, ending December 6. This is the first VALORANT tournament sponsored by Riot themselves, rather than a third-party company. With a $100k prize pool, the tournament will surely be a good litmus test to show who is the best team in North America.
Here is the full schedule with dates at times.
- October 26 – 30, NSG Open Qualifier
- 16 teams advance to the first qualifying tournament
- November 4 – 8, NSG Tournament
- Top 4 teams advance to VALORANT First Strike
- Next 4 teams advance to UMG Tournament
- November 11 – 15, UMG Open Qualifier
- 12 teams from UMG Qualifier advance to the second qualifying tournament
- Top 4 teams advance to UMG Tournament
- November 18 – 21, UMG Tournament
- Pool includes 4 teams from NSG Tournament
- Top 4 teams advance to VALORANT First Strike
- December 3 – 6, VALORANT First Strike Main Event
- 8 teams compete for $100K prize pool
Teams can enter the qualifying tournaments on the NSG and UMG sites. VALORANT fans can watch all the action on Twitch and YouTube on the VALORANT_NA channel, as well as the NerdStreetGamers Twitch channel, and the UMGGaming Twitch channel.
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Featured image courtesy of Riot Games
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