Valorant: Riot Details Competitive Integrity Rules for VCT 2027
We'll go over Riot's anti-cheat, eligibility and streaming rules for VCT 2027 Open Qualifiers, including the Ascendant+ rank requirement.
Riot Games has laid out how it plans to keep Valorant competition fair as the VALORANT Champions Tour opens up in 2027. The tour is adding more teams, more ways to qualify and a return to online play, so the rules around cheating, streaming and eligibility matter to far more players than before.
If you're thinking about entering an Open Qualifier, you'll want to know what Riot expects before you register. We've pulled out the key requirements below, based on the official announcement on playvalorant.com.
Anti-Cheat and Account Requirements
Riot says it has a zero tolerance policy for cheating, and that enabling or assisting others to cheat is also prohibited. The focus is on making it harder for bad actors to enter competition at all, not just punishing them afterward.
- Vanguard: All competitors must be Vanguard Check compliant.
- Rank: Players need to be Ascendant+ to compete in Open Qualifiers. Every member of a team must have hit a peak of Ascendant+ in the last 6 months.
- Account standing: Your account must not be currently banned, and must not have received a Game Ban, Vanguard Intervention, Ranked Restriction or Comms Restriction within the last 30 days.
Confirmed violations lead to sanctions, including disqualification and competitive suspensions. Riot says it investigates using Vanguard detection, account reviews, match evidence and tournament investigations, and it has a compliance and comp ops team dedicated to this. If you want more background on how Riot handles cheaters, see our look at the latest Valorant cheating update.
How Oversight Scales by Stage
Riot is using a framework that adds protections as teams advance.
| Stage | Measures |
|---|---|
| Open Qualifiers | Vanguard-led protection, post-match reporting and retroactive enforcement |
| Open Play-Ins | An elevated baseline, with regional discretion to add monitoring and verification |
| Open Playoffs | The full framework, including voice monitoring, player POV recordings and match-area cameras |
Tournament officials can also request extra checks during a match, such as reviewing player setups, asking for recordings or requiring a live stream of the match area.
Streaming, Coaches and Online Disputes
Players can livestream their Open Qualifier matches, but player POV streams must have a broadcast delay of at least two minutes to limit stream sniping. Creators who want to co-stream a player POV need approval from the tournament organizer first. Teams can also publish match VODs and voice communications.
Coaches may communicate with players in the early stages. In later stages of Cup qualification tournaments, that communication will be monitored under the same rules the VCT uses today.
Online play also means players are responsible for their own connection and equipment. Disconnects and crashes are handled through the technical-pause rules in the Online Play Rulebook, and officials can't pause an entire tournament over one dispute because brackets are interconnected.
Roster Rules and Championship Points
At least three of five starting players must belong to the team's designated home region. To keep progress and Championship points from stage to stage, a team needs to keep 3/5 of its roster between Open Qualifiers.
Championship Points will expand across nearly every level of the VCT in 2027, from Open Qualifiers to Kickoff, Cups and Masters. Qualifier points mainly help with seeding, while points at the highest level help decide Champions qualification. Riot says more details will arrive in the coming weeks.
Before your first match, review your regional rulebook, check your device security and test your connection. The final rules are on the Competitive Operations website. For more, see our guide to the VCT schedule and format and our season and act schedule explainer.
