Knights Arena announce introduction of Play-in Relegation Tournament for teams to qualify for NA VAL ·
Benjamin Ward
Published Jan 02, 2026
The organizers of the North America VALORANT Challengers League Knights Arena have introduced a new relegation system to allow only two teams other than the top 8 to qualify for the League in 2024. According to the announcement, the bottom four teams in the league will play in a Play-In Relegation Tournament with a random seed drawing and a double elimination GSL-style bracket.
This year’s VCT Challenger League Americas saw six teams qualify for the league through the open system. The teams that qualified through the open system were Oxygen Esports, Turtle Troop, Moist Moguls, MAD Lions, Disguised, and OREsports. The event of letting this many teams into the league through the open system seems to have been only for 2023. For the 2024 VALORANT Challengers league only 2 teams from the bottom 4 will be allowed in. The top 8 teams in the league automatically qualify for the next year’s league.
The top 12 standing in the VCT Challengers league with only three weeks to play are as shown below :
VALORANT Play-in Relegation Tournament
The organizers for the VALORANT Challengers League announced that the bottom 4 teams in the league table at the end of the season will have to compete in a play-in relegation tournament. This will take place on June 2, and will see two teams qualifying for the 2024 Challengers League NA and the other two being relegated at the end of the tournament. However, the relegated teams have a chance to try again in the open system qualifiers or have to be satisfied with going back to playing Tier 2 VALORANT League.
We are entering the final stages of #ChallengersNA for the year, with the top eight teams securing their spot in the 2024 Challengers League NA. The remaining four teams will have to compete in the Play-In Relegation Tournament.
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— VALORANT Esports NA (@valesports_na) May 3, 2023The seed for the play-in tournament will be picked randomly and the bottom 4 teams will have a GSL-style bracket with double elimination. Each match will be the best of three maps. There is still a close fight between 4 teams that have the same amount of points for 7th and 8th position. With only three weeks of competition left, the bottom 4 teams at the moment are :
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