VCT Pacific reduces partner teams from 10 to 8 for 2027 season

Riot Games is shrinking the VCT Pacific partnership roster from 10 teams to 8 starting in 2027, part of a broader restructuring that fundamentally changes how professional VALORANT works.

The reduction brings Pacific in line with a new global standard. Every VCT region will now field exactly eight partnered teams.

The bigger picture: league play is dead

On April 8, 2026, Riot announced it’s gutting the regular-season league format entirely, replacing it with a tournament-centric model built around open qualifiers and regional VCT Cups. Instead of watching the same partnered teams play each other in a drawn-out season, the new system lets non-partner squads fight their way into events alongside the established names.

Riot is targeting over 20 global events annually under the new framework.

A new two-year partnership cycle kicks off in 2027, covering through 2028. Applications for prospective partner teams opened immediately after the April announcement.

What Riot wants from its partners

The selection criteria for the 2027-2028 cycle prioritize community engagement, business sustainability, and what Riot calls “operational responsibility.”

Partner teams that make the cut will retain guaranteed base payments, performance bonuses, and revenue shares from in-game transactions.

What this means for esports investors and the competitive ecosystem

The expansion to over 20 global events annually increases inventory for sponsors, content for media rights deals, and touchpoints for fan engagement.

The Pacific region covers an enormous geographic footprint spanning from South Korea to Australia. Cutting from 10 to 8 teams means less regional representation by default, and Riot hasn’t finalized the details around Pacific-specific regional qualifiers yet.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.