Fnatic and FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) have qualified for Valorant Champions 2022, which is essentially the world championship for Riot’s team shooter.
They are two EMEA teams that topped the circuit point standings for the region.
From Saturday’s results at the ongoing Valorant VCT Stage 2 Masters LAN in Copenhagen, Fnatic qualify for Valorant Champions 2022, as do FPX.
FPX beat Guild 2-1 in the lower bracket on Saturday, and Leviatan beat XSET 2-1.
Fnatic are already in the upper bracket semi-finals in Copenhagen, after beating FPX a few days ago 2-0. Fnatic will now face Paper Rex as they look to reach the final of the latest Valorant LAN.
As UK Valorant host Yinsu Collins points out, Fnatic and FPX will be joined by one other EMEA team from a last chance qualifier.
The last chance qualifier will start on August 7th 2022 and will feature G2, Guild, Team Liquid, M3 Champions, Acend, BBL Esports, Navi and OG LDN UTD.
The news comes a few weeks after Fnatic won the Valorant VCT EMEA Stage 2 Challengers to claim their first top-place finish, as Guild finished third.
In 2021, Fnatic qualified for Valorant Champions much later in the year, but this year, their results have been more consistent in the past few months as they look to have found a roster, and a form, that is working well for them.
Valorant Champions 2022 will take place from September 2nd to 18th 2022, instead of in December as it did last year.
Other teams that have already qualified for Valorant Champions this year, aside from FPX and Fnatic, include Optic, XSET, Loud, Leviatan, DRX, Zeta Division, Paper Rex and Xerxia.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
