The European Valorant esports scene has just made an important change to its broadcast schedule and streaming policies, which represents a major step forward in its efforts to nurture the game’s popularity within the region: finally, qualification games will be streamed by official channels, and popular influencers are now allowed to host watch parties as they have been able to in other regions.
Indeed, influencer watch parties have proved a huge success in the North American region, with popular channels such as Shroud’s hitting enormous viewership numbers. For legal reasons, though, the same practices haven’t been allowed in Europe. It’s something I’ve lamented in a previous article breaking down key takeaways from Masters Stage 1, which concluded two weeks ago.
Starting this weekend, however, not only will Valorant’s official EU channels stream the Challengers Stage 2 Round of 16 games but several influencer channels will also be streaming the Round of 64 and 32 qualifications games of their choice. It means we can finally start getting a proper feel for EU’s Tier 2 and 3 teams, as well as simply enjoying more from fan-favorites teams. That includes the likes of Team Liquid and G2, two excellent teams that have now twice found themselves knocked out early in close series that fans have only been able to keep up to date with by relying on score updates.
Over on the official channels, dubbed “premium broadcasts,” a voting system will be used to determine which games will be shown at the round of 16/8 stage. An article over on vlr.gg explains:
On Monday, 12 April, we will add more video streams for the final day of the Stage 2 Qualifiers that will enable fans to watch the competition. As part of this, we will host a premium broadcast that will give fans the opportunity to vote for which two games they want to see. Two rounds of voting will take place on the valesports_eu Twitter channel ahead of the Round of 16 and the Round of 8, allowing fans to vote for which game they want to watch on the premium broadcast.
The premium broadcast will include three casters, including host Yinsu Collins, Mitch “MitchMan” McBride and Tom “Tombizz” Bissmire.
Below you can find the full breakdown of every Twitch channel streaming European Valorant games this weekend:
EU Channels
Saturday, 10 April
Zescht + Lothar
Mitch + Tom
Pansy + Hypoc
AverageJonas
RyanCentral
Sunday, 11 April
Zescht + Lothar
Mitch + Tom
Pansy + Hypoc
AverageJonas
RyanCentral
Monday, 12 April
Zescht + Lothar
Pansy + Hypoc
RyanCentral
Premium Stream Twitch
Premium Stream YouTube
TR Channels
Saturday 10, April:
Vladimirpetrenko (Berke Kantürk)
rootthegamer (Özgür Alagül)
Sunday, 11 April
Vladimirpetrenko (Berke Kantürk)
rootthegamer (Özgür Alagül)
Monday, 12 April
Premium Stream Twitch
Premium Stream YouTube
CIS Channels
Saturday 10, April:
Cracken + Pnukh
Snowberry + Bombi
Sunday, 11 April
Cracken + Pnukh
Snowberry + Bombi
Monday, 12 April
Cracken + Pnukh
Snowberry + Bombi
Premium Stream Twitch
Premium Stream YouTube
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