Riot Games announced Valorant's first official esports promotion on Tuesday by unveiling the Ignition Series, which will begin Friday with two events and run through the fall.
The eight-team G2 Esports Valorant Invitational and the 16-team RAGE Valorant Japan Invitational both will run from Friday to Sunday. Two more yet-to-be-announced events are planned for June 26-28.
Riot has partnered with more than 20 esports organizations globally that will run their own tournaments, with the goal of producing "a combination of competitive open qualifiers, show matches and invitationals featuring top players of the game, established personalities and aspiring amateurs."
Among locations expected for future events are North America, Brazil, Latin America, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, Oceania, Europe, Russia, Turkey and the Middle East.
"We've already learned so much from community and organizer feedback, and we're actively working with the development team on features that will help make it easier to watch as well as opportunities that will provide a level of competition beyond the ranked system," Riot senior director of global esports Whalen "Magus" Rozelle and Valorant esports strategy lead Kasra "CuriousKaz" Jafroodi said in an announcement on Riot's website.
"You'll continue to see us increase our support for esports to ensure that both the amateur and professional scenes flourish."
Carlos "ocelote" Rodriguez, CEO of G2 Esports, added in a release, "We are ready to open the Valorant Ignition Series and continue the success of the G2 EU Brawls in an all-out entertainment-filled invitational. Our partnership with Riot has helped make the European League of Legends community the force it is today and contributed to the success of the LEC, and I have no doubt that we will do the same for Valorant."