VALORANT
European(1) Licensed Competition Guidelines
Reviewed on 20/08/2021
(1)These guidelines apply to organizers resident in one of the following countries ( “The Territory”) : Aland Islands, Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territories, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Island, Finland, French Southern Territories, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Jersey, Kazakhstan,Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, La Reunion, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mayotte, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia (formerly Macedonia), Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saint Helena, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Republic of Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom (UK), Uzbekistan, Vatican City (Holy See)
OVERVIEW
VALORANT Tournament Licences are provided by Riot Games Limited ( “Riot”) for the Territory. Four levels of tournament license are available. These licenses are granted on a per tournament basis with the level of license required depending on both the nature of the proposed tournament and the nature of the applicant.
Please note: The tournament licenses described below cannot be granted to brands, agencies acting on behalf of brands, or for specific brand activations. If you’re a brand, or agency acting on behalf of a brand, please contact brandrequests@riotgames.com to discuss further.
Small Tournament License:
Reserved for non-commercial organisers (e.g. players and community groups).
Strict limitations on tournament prize pool, format, and length.
Strict limitations on sponsors and brand activations.
No use of Riot Games intellectual property for marketing beyond the creative kit provided by Riot.
License granted provided you are compliant with these guidelines.
Medium Tournament License:
Available to commercial organisers.
Moderate limitations on tournament prize pool, format, and length.
Moderate limitations on sponsorships and commercialisation
Dates must not clash with major Riot events.
Use of Riot Games intellectual Property for marketing purposes may be granted with express permission from Riot.
Applications generally processed within 14 days.
Multi-School Tournament License:
Available to commercial organisers.
Moderate limitations on tournament prize pool, format, and length appropriate to scholastic competition.
Moderate limitations on sponsorships and commercialisation.
Dates must not clash with major Riot events.
Use of Riot intellectual property for marketing purposes may be granted with express permission from Riot.
Applications generally processed within 14 days.
Major Tournament License:
Available to commercial organisers.
No limitations on tournament prize pool, format, and length.
No limitations on sponsorships and commercialisation.
Dates must not clash with major Riot events.
Use of Riot Intellectual property for marketing purposes may be granted with express permission from Riot.
Applications may take considerable time to process and are only granted under exceptional circumstances.
The sections that follow describe the detailed terms and conditions for each license level. You must be fully compliant with these terms and conditions to be successful in your application. Please review the full document before considering how to proceed.
APPLICATION PROCESS
The application process varies depending on the license level required.
Small Tournament License:
No application needed. You are granted a Small Tournament License provided you strictly adhere to the terms and conditions set out in these guidelines.
Medium Tournament License:
You must apply for a custom Medium Tournament License.
Your application will be considered and you will receive a decision within 14 days.
Medium Tournament Licenses are granted at Riot ’s discretion, agreeing to comply with these guidelines does not guarantee you will receive a Medium Tournament License.
You must not announce your proposed tournament, or advertise to players, until you have received your licence.
Multi-School Tournament License:
You must apply for a custom Multi-School Tournament License.
Your application will be considered and you will receive a decision within 14 days.
Multi-School Tournament Licenses are granted at Riot ’s discretion, agreeing to comply with these guidelines does not guarantee you will receive a Medium Tournament License.
You must not announce your proposed tournament, or advertise to players, until you have received your licence.
Major Tournament License:
You must apply to the Global Riot Games Esports Team (i.e. LAX) for a custom Major Tournament License.
Applications may take considerable time to process and are only granted under exceptional circumstances.
You must not announce your proposed tournament, or advertise to players, until you have received your licence.
ORGANISER NATURE
The minimum license level required is determined by the nature of the organiser independent of the proposed competition. Any person applying on behalf of a third party (e.g. an agency applying on behalf of a client) should consider the end beneficiary of the license as the subject with regards to this section.
Small Tournament License:
Individual players.
Player driven community groups (e.g. Discord communities).
Schools, colleges, and universities provided no more than two schools are competing in the proposed competition.
PC cafes and LAN gaming centres.
Medium Tournament License:
Small to medium scale tournament & event organisers.
Tournament platforms.
Esports teams & organisations.
Major influencers
Other business and commercial entities.
Multi-School Tournament License:
As per Medium with the addition of schools, colleges, and universities where more than two schools will be competing in the proposed competition.
Major Tournament License:
Major esports tournament & event organisers (e.g. ESL, Dreamhack, OGN, etc).
COMPETITION DETAILS
Small Tournament License:
The duration of your proposed tournament should be a maximum of 4 weeks.
- Your proposed tournament must be clearly positioned as a standalone competition. For avoidance of doubt this means:
Your proposed tournament must not serve as a direct qualifier for another tournament.
Your proposed tournament must not award points that help qualify for another tournament.
Your proposed tournament may have multiple stages (e.g. groups into single elimination) provided these are clearly positioned as belonging to a single tournament.
Medium Tournament License:
The duration of your proposed tournament should be a maximum of 4 weeks.
The dates of your proposed tournament must not conflict with any major Riot Games VALORANT competition relevant to the sub-region(s) in which the competition will be taking place (e.g. Masters).
Multi-School Tournament License:
The duration of your proposed tournament should be a maximum of 90 days.
- Your proposed tournament must be clearly positioned as a standalone competition. For avoidance of doubt this means:
Your proposed tournament must not serve as a direct qualifier for another tournament.
Your proposed tournament must not award points that help qualify for another tournament.
Your proposed tournament may have multiple stages (e.g. groups into single elimination) provided these are clearly positioned as belonging to a single tournament.
The dates of your proposed tournament must not conflict with any major Riot Games VALORANT competition relevant to the sub-region(s) in which the competition will be taking place (e.g. Masters).
Major Tournament License:
The dates of your proposed tournament must not conflict with any major Riot Games VALORANT competition relevant to the sub-region(s) in which the competition will be taking place (e.g. Masters).
COMPETITION GEOGRAPHY
All Tournament Licenses:
To be eligible for any license (small/medium/multi-school/major), your competition must target players in one of the following six sub-regions.
Sub-region 1: Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Poland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia (formerly Macedonia), Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia.
Sub-region 2: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, French Guiana, French Southern Territories, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Réunion, French Southern Territories.
Sub-region 3: Andorra, Portugal, Spain, Italy,San Marino, Vatican City (Holy See).
Sub-region 4: United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, South Africa, Åland Islands, Bouvet Island, Faroe Islands, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, British Indian Ocean Territory, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Malta, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, British Virgin Islands).
Sub-region 5: Turkey.
Sub-region 6: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
For avoidance of doubt, this means that all marketing and communication should be in a language native to the chosen sub-region and conducted through channels familiar to local players. You are not required to exclude players from other sub-regions, but these should always be a minority of those competing.
Licenses for pan-European competition and competition containing multiple sub-regions will only be granted under exceptional circumstances and where there is a compelling reason to do so.
TRADEMARKS OR AFFILIATION
Small Tournament License:
You may use the name VALORANT to promote your Competition.
You must not use the words “Championship”, “Champions”, “Season”, “League”, “Division”, “Masters” or any other word which might imply that your tournament is part of an official Riot Games esports circuit, in the name of your competition.
You must not use the words “Pro”, “Professional”, or any other language that might suggest your competition contains professional players, in the name of your proposed tournament.
You must not suggest that your proposed tournament or tournament website is endorsed, approved by, or affiliated with, Riot in any way.
You must additionally include the following notice in a clear and conspicuous manner on your competition website and any competition materials: “This competition is not affiliated with or sponsored by Riot Games, Inc. or VALORANT Esports.”
- When designing promotional assets for your proposed tournament, you must pick one of the following routes:
Either, you agree not to use the Riot Games logos or trademarks (including game logo treatments, Esports leagues trademarks (professional or amateur), or the name Riot Games, Inc., Riot Games or Riot) to promote your Competition or Competition website.
Or, you agree to use the small tournament asset pack here and abide strictly by the guidelines within.
You must not suggest your proposed tournament in any way constitutes a "national," or "state" competition, and/or that competing players are representing their respective territories.
Multi-School Tournament License:
You may use the name VALORANT to promote your Competition.
You must not use the words “Championship”, “Champions”, “Season”, “League”, “Division”, “Masters” or any other word which might imply that your tournament is part of an official Riot Games esports circuit, in the name of your competition.
You must not use the words “Pro”, “Professional”, or any other language that might suggest your competition contains professional players, in the name of your proposed tournament.
The name of your proposed competition must include language that indicates it is an academic competition (e.g. student, university, school).
You must not suggest that your proposed tournament or tournament website is endorsed, approved by, or affiliated with, Riot in any way.
You must additionally include the following notice in a clear and conspicuous manner on your competition website and any competition materials: “This competition is not affiliated with or sponsored by Riot Games, Inc. or VALORANT Esports.”
- When designing promotional assets for your proposed tournament, you must pick one of the following routes:
Either, you agree not to use the Riot Games logos or trademarks (including game logo treatments, Esports leagues trademarks (professional or amateur), or the name Riot Games, Inc., Riot Games or Riot) to promote your Competition or Competition website.
Or, you agree to submit any use of the Riot Games logos or trademarks (including game logo treatments, Esports leagues trademarks (professional or amateur), or the name Riot Games, Inc., Riot Games or Riot) to Riot Games for approval no less than 14 days before their proposed use.
Or, you agree to use the small tournament asset pack here and abide strictly by the guidelines within.
Use of Official School Marks: organisers must solicit any rights to use school, or association trademarks, logos, and brands directly from the relevant institutions.
You must not suggest your proposed tournament in any way constitutes a "national," or "state" competition, and/or that competing players are representing their respective territories.
Medium & Major Tournament Licenses:
You may use the name VALORANT to promote your Competition.
You must not use the words “Championship”, “Champions”, “Season”, “League”, “Division”, “Masters” or any other word which might imply that your tournament is part of an official Riot Games esports circuit, in the name of your competition.
You must not use the words “Pro”, “Professional”, or any other language that might suggest your competition contains professional players, in the name of your proposed tournament.
Unless otherwise advised, you must not suggest that your proposed tournament or tournament website is endorsed, approved by, or affiliated with, Riot Games in any way.
Unless otherwise advised, you must additionally include the following notice in a clear and conspicuous manner on your competition website and any competition materials: “This competition is not affiliated with or sponsored by Riot Games, Inc. or VALORANT Esports.”
- When designing promotional assets for your proposed tournament, you must pick one of the following routes:
Either, you agree not to use the Riot Games logos or trademarks (including game logo treatments, Esports leagues trademarks (professional or amateur), or the name Riot Games, Inc., Riot Games or Riot) to promote your Competition or Competition website.
Or, you agree to submit any use of the Riot Games logos or trademarks (including game logo treatments, Esports leagues trademarks (professional or amateur), or the name Riot Games, Inc., Riot Games or Riot) to Riot Games for approval no less than 14 days before their proposed use.
Or, you agree to use the small tournament asset pack here and abide strictly by the guidelines within.
You must not suggest your proposed tournament in any way constitutes a "national," or "state" competition, and/or that competing players are representing their respective territories.
ENTRY FEES
Small, Medium & Major Tournaments:
You may charge an entry fee for your Competition. Entry fee revenue must be used solely to help offset the Competition Costs (such as venue, web hosting, casters, etc.) or towards the Competition’s prize pool.
If a profit is to be gained from entry fees, you must notify us in advance of the Competition to discuss how those profits will be dispersed.
Multi-School Tournaments:
You must not charge an entry fee for your Competition.
COMPENSATION
The value of the total compensation pool including but not limited to prizes, prize money, and appearance fees paid by the organizer, and sponsors, including any organizer or sponsor or other affiliates, to the combined players, teams and team owners for participating in the competition (collectively, the "Compensation"), must not exceed:
Small Tournament License:
EUR 2,000 or its regional equivalent OR EUR 2,500 in non-cash compensation (excluding all local taxes).
The total value of your compensation pool, including cash value of non-cash compensation, across all competitions you organize in a calendar year may not exceed EUR 20,000 or its regional equivalent (excluding all local taxes), without prior approval from Riot.
Medium Tournament License:
EUR 50,000 or its regional equivalent (excluding all local taxes), including cash and non-cash compensation.
The total value of your compensation pool, including cash value of non-cash compensation, across all competitions you organize in a calendar year may not exceed EUR 200,000 or its regional equivalent (excluding all local taxes), without prior approval from Riot.
Riot may contribute to your compensation pool.
Multi-School Tournament License:
EUR 10,000 or its regional equivalent (excluding all local taxes), in cash or non-cash compensation. This amount does not include any University Scholarships.
The total value of your compensation pool across all competitions you organize in a scholastic year may not exceed EUR 50,000 or its regional equivalent (excluding all local taxes), without prior approval from Riot.
Major Tournaments
Riot Games may contribute to your compensation pool.
BROADCASTING
All Tournament Licenses:
If you broadcast your competition online, you are responsible for ensuring that any accompanied chat is adequately moderated to prevent vulgar, abusive, or an otherwise mean spirited environment.
Additionally, you must toggle “Show Blood” and “Show Bodies” off in the VALORANT settings.
You may not charge fees of any kind for spectators to watch the competition online.
Small Tournament License:
You may broadcast your competition online, and may stream on whichever online platform you like, provided you comply with the Riot Games Legal Jibber Jabber.
You must only broadcast in a language native to the sub-region you have selected for your tournament.
All other forms of broadcast (e.g, linear television) are prohibited.
Medium, Multi-School & Major Tournament Licenses:
You must abide by the Broadcast terms set forth in your custom license.
If Riot Games promotes your competition, contributes to your prize pool, and/or helps monetize your competition in any way, you may be asked to promote Riot Games social media accounts and/or channels during your broadcast.
SPONSORS & PARTNERS
All Tournament Licenses:
Your competition, and all teams participating in it, must not be sponsored by, partnered with, or otherwise affiliated with, any organisation listed in Section XI (Prohibited Sponsor & Advertiser List).
You must not sell naming rights to the competition (e.g. BrandX VALORANT Cup), or integrate the name of any sponsor or partner into the name of the proposed competition.
None of your sponsors or other brand affiliates, for any event, may use the VALORANT Intellectual property or Marks (e.g. agents, ingame material, highlights, logos, art, etc.) in promotion of the event, their products, or otherwise advertise themselves as an official partner of Riot Games.
- Competitions may not be sponsored or sanctioned by an association, membership body, or other entity that either:
Refers to itself explicitly as an esports governing body.
Sanctions esports competitions as part of or on behalf of a territory's government and/or national sports authorities.
Seeks to bind its members under common policy.
Small Tournament License:
You may have only one partner appearing on your promotional materials. In addition, you may have only one partner for the prize pool or non-cash prizes.
Total sponsor contributions for the proposed competition must not exceed EUR 10,000 or its regional equivalent (excluding all local taxes) in value.
In addition, your organization cannot receive more than EUR 50,000 or its regional equivalent (excluding all local taxes), in sponsorships in a calendar year for VALORANT tournaments. If you are likely to exceed this, you must apply for a Medium Tournament License.
Medium, Multi-School & Major Tournaments:
You must abide by the terms set forth in your custom license.
Riot Games may assist in monetizing your event through sponsorships, in which case a predetermined percentage of the proceeds would be contributed to your prize pool.
PROHIBITED SPONSOR & ADVERTISER LIST
We may make changes to the Prohibited Sponsorship List. It is your responsibility to review the Prohibited Sponsorship List for updates or changes.
The Prohibited Sponsor and Advertiser List:
Any other video game, other video game developer, or publisher.
Any video game consoles.
Any esport or other video game tournament, league, or event.
Gambling, sportsbook and casinos.
Fantasy esports operators (including daily fantasy).
Any prescription drugs or drugs that are not “over-the-counter” drugs including items such as CBD oils, etc.
Firearms, ammunition or firearm accessories.
Pornography or pornographic products.
Tobacco products or paraphernalia.
Alcohol products (including non-alcoholic beverages marketed by alcohol companies) or other intoxicants the sale or use of which is regulated by applicable law.
Sellers of or marketplaces for virtual items known to be counterfeit or illegal.
Seller of or marketplaces for goods or services that violate the Riot Games terms of Service.
Cryptocurrencies, or any other unregulated financial instruments or markets.
Political campaigns or political action committees.
Charities that endorse particular religious or political positions, or are not reputable. (Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Stand-Up to Cancer and other similar mainstream charities would be considered reputable).
State lotteries.
If you have any questions on the above or are unsure as to the category, please seek clarification and secure express written permission from Riot Games.
MERCHANDISING
Small Tournament Licenses:
You may not sell any Riot Games, VALORANT, VALORANT Esports, or similar branded merchandise.
Medium, Multi-School & Major Tournament Licenses:
Riot, or via one of its affiliates, may provide, or permit the sale of, Riot Games, VALORANT, VALORANT Esports, or similar branded merchandise.
RIOT’S RIGHTS TO CONTENT
All Tournament Licenses:
In consideration of Riot granting you a competition license, you agree that Riot can choose to promote your competition, and may use the results of your competition to qualify players for Riot sponsored competitions.
Additionally, by operating or sponsoring a licensed competition, you agree to license to Riot and its subsidiaries, for free and forever, any rights that you may have in the broadcasted content, highlights, video, still content, news, and all other content generated by the competition for us to copy, modify, distribute, or publicly display such content, or to sublicense those rights as we see fit.
OTHER LEGAL STUFF
All Tournament Licenses:
It is your responsibility (and the responsibility of any sponsors or other third parties involved with your competition) to comply with all applicable laws and regulations for your competition, as well as all our policies, as may be amended from time to time. If there is not a right granted in another Riot Games policy, the right does not exist.
The Competition must comply with all applicable laws and regulations, as well as all policies of any third party service you are using to stream or broadcast your Competition.
Riot may revoke a competition license if the competition promotes or represents anything contrary to Riot Game’s values, the interpretation and application of which is in Riot ’s sole discretion.
If there is a disagreement between you and Riot, we will try to resolve that by negotiating with you for a period of thirty days. If that doesn’t work, any disputes will be resolved under Irish law in the courts in Dublin.
On the condition that you follow all of the guidelines described in this policy (the “Guidelines”), our Legal Jibber Jabber, and our Terms of Service, Riot Games, Inc. (“Riot”, “we”, or “us”) may grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, non-transferable, revocable, limited license (“Competition License”) for you to organize and operate a VALORANT competition (the “Competition”), but we may take action or otherwise shut down any competition at any time if we decide it violates or misinterprets these Guidelines, our Terms of Service, or any of our other policies, promotes or represents anything contrary to our Values, or otherwise uses our intellectual property (“IP”) inappropriately.