The Valorant India Invitational 2022 (VII) Tournament will kickstart on November 18th. Eight teams will compete in a LAN tournament for a prize pool of USD 100,000 in Hyderabad, India.
And for the first time in the history, VII 2022 will be held alongside the Sunburn music festival in India, with DJ Snake as the headliner.
In addition to the music festival, the tournament organiser recently announced the Spanish team, Heretics Gaming as the final invited team to VII 2022. Mixwell, a former member of the G2 Esports and former CS:GO star player, will be eagerly anticipated by the audience as he will lead Heretics in the tournament.
The primary tournament structure has not yet been officially established, although it will likely consist of two phases, Group Stage and Playoffs.
If the tournament follows the above-mentioned structure, the eight teams will be divided into two groups of four teams each. The top two teams from each group will move on to the next round. During the Group Stage, preliminary matchups could be best-of-one and decisive matches may be best-of-three, however all matches during the Playoffs will be best-of-three.
If the competition is not divided into Group Stages and Play-offs, the most likely structure is a single-elimination bracket format with each match comprising B03 and the Grand Finals being B05.
A fitting opening for Southeast Asian representatives
VII 2022 is set to be packed with unexpected surprises, particularly for Valorant fans in Southeast Asia. SEA region will be represented by four teams: Paper Rex, Bleed Esports, Boom Esports, and RRQ.
Paper Rex and Bleed Esports have both faced the challenges of Valorant’s worldwide tournament to date. Paper Rex surprised the audience when they won Valorant APAC 2022 and became the first Singaporean to compete at VCT 2022 Turkey in September. On the other hand, the young organisation, Bleed Esports, is beginning to show more consistency in major tournaments.
From Indonesia, Boom Esports will certainly be a team to watch, considering its latest squad revamp. The VCT debutants have just announced the acquisition of three prominent players from their local competitive scene: blaZek1ng, SEVERiNE, and famouz.
RRQ is arguably the least experienced participant from Southeast Asia in this tournament. The Indonesian team, who had caused a stir in the local competitive scene by fielding a roster that was deemed ‘too much Pinoy’, eventually dismissed two of its Filipino players, KellyS and Nexi, and replaced them with two Indonesian players prior to this competition. The addition of fl1ipzjder as team captain, however, will provide them with invaluable insights to compete at international level.
This tournament will undoubtedly be the first measuring stick for these Southeast Asian teams to assess their preparation ahead of the major international competition in which they will compete next year.
