Within the VALORANT professional scene, 2022 has been an important year for those regions that were neither EMEA nor North America. Countries like Brazil have gained importance within the ecosystem of the shooter to the point of consolidating under the condition of world champions. One of the sensations of the year was Japan, which with ZETA DIVISION offered a high level in the last masters from Reykjavik. For this reason, the country will host the VALORANT Masters of 2023.
Riot Games has made official during the celebration of the Riot Games ONE PRO INVITATIONAL that the VALORANT Masters of 2023 will be held in Japan. 17,000 spectators have experienced the moment in person at the Yokohama Arena in Kanagawa, where the announcement has been lived with great emotion. Both fans and members of the professional teams have burst into tears to see that the shooter de Riot will be in the country for the first time in history.
2023年、日本のEsportsは次のSTAGEへ。
Masters Tokyo 日本開催決定。 pic.twitter.com/ZfzEYhA0YY— VALORANT Champions Tour JAPAN (@valesports_jp) December 24, 2022
Japan has had a good initial stretch in 2022 thanks to the support of ZETA DIVISION. The Japanese organization was third in the masters from Reykjavík after losing 3-0 against OpTic Gaming, which was proclaimed champion of the tournament. Furthermore, ZETA is one of the most popular clubs in VALORANT, representing an entire country. According to data from Esports ChartsZETA DIVISION has been the club with the highest average number of viewers (271,000) and the second with the most hours viewed (18.3 million).
The announcement of the celebration of the VALORANT Masters in Japan has been the icing on the cake of the ONE PRO INVITATIONAL. The tournament has functioned mainly as a shot match from ZETA DIVISION and DetonatioN FocusMe against Paper Rex, Fnatic and DRX. ZETA has signed the only victory of the local representation against Paper Rex, while the European and South Korean teams have easily prevailed. In 2023 Japan will be part of the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) of the Pacific, where it will compete with clubs from South Korea and Southeast Asia.
