The Nerd Street Gamers’ (NSG) Valorant Winter Championship is one of the first Valorant tournaments of 2021. The tournament will consist of 16 teams duking it out for the first annual Winter Championship, and NSG has listed the 12 qualifying teams. The last four teams are invitation-only. So far, NSG has not disclosed who was even invited.
Each of the 12 teams qualified from NSG’s monthly Valorant tournaments over the fall, three from each tournament. The breakdown is as follows:
NSG September Qualifiers
- Equinox Esports
- Luminosity Gaming
- Team 2D
NSG October Qualifiers
- Moon Raccoons
- Mamba Mode Gaming
- XSET
NSG November Qualifiers
- Andbox
- ex-Serenity
- Sedated
NSG December Qualifiers
- NRG
- Built by Gamers
- Spacestation Gaming
Many of these teams recently participated in the first official Valorant tournament, Valorant First Strike.
NSG Winter Championship details
The teams will be divided up into groups of four, playing in a standard GSL-format. The top two teams from each group will advance to the playoffs. In the group stage, the opening and elimination matches will be best-of-1. Winners’ and Decider matches will be best-of-3.
The playoffs then will be an eight-team single-elimination bracket setup. All of these matches will be a best-of-3. The Grand Final, however, will be a best-of-5.
The group stages will begin on January 13, ending with the Grand Final on January 17. Nerd Street Gamers‘ Twitch channels will live-stream the entire tournament.
NSG’s other winter tournament
Before the Winter Championship begins, NSG has yet another Valorant tournament on the schedule. NSG partnered with Complexity Gaming to host a 16-team invitational. The NSG x Complexity Gaming tournament will be in the same format as the Winter Championship, but it will only run for two days total.
Obviously, Complexity Gaming is one participant. Four others qualified from the NSG December tournament: Prospects, NRG, Spacestation Gaming, and Built by Gamers. The other eleven invited teams have not been announced yet.
The NSG x Complexity tournament will have a $10,000 prize pool split between the top three teams. The competition will run from January 9 to 10. The NSG Valorant Winter Championship has a far bigger prize pool of $25,000 and will run from January 13 to 17.
