VCT 2025 Kickoff: Bet on which team tops their region
Valorant's esports scene starts again! Join the action and follow VCT 2025's Kickoff series with Gamdom—here's a helpful overview of the tournament.
VCT 2025 Kickoff: Place your bets for glory at Gamdom
The Valorant Championship Tour (VCT) 2025 is underway with the exciting regional Kickoff series. You can catch the action live and place in-play bets at Gamdom or make VALORANT Champions Tour predictions on future matches. Learn everything about VCT 2025 Kickoff match betting to enjoy the best VALORANT esports betting experience.
Key takeaways
- The VCT Kickoff series is the start of the VALORANT Champions Tour followed by Masters and their respective stages.
- Each VCT Kickoff is a regional LAN tournament hosted for China, America, EMEA, and the Pacific.
- Fans named the top 3 likely winners of each Kickoff stage.
Regional VCT 2025 Kickoff formats and top teams
The VCT 2025 is one of the most-awaited esports tournaments this year. It runs from January to October, following the 2024 format that splits the tournament into 4 series namely Kickoff, Stage 1, Stage 2, and Champions. The Kickoff marks the beginning of the tournament where each region hosts respective games ahead of the Masters.
Each of the four major regions in VALORANT esports hosts LAN events with 12 participants and the top 2 placers qualify for Masters Bangkok. The top 4 teams from each VCT Kickoff event win 3 points in the new VALORANT point system for international standings.
Event series are the same for every region following these conditions:
- All 12 participants of each VCT region play a double elimination bracket. All games are best of 3 (Bo3) except for the lower bracket final and grand final which are best of 5 (Bo5).
- The top 4 teams of the 2024 season of each region get first-round byes.
The VALORANT champions schedule can be slightly different between regions. You can learn more about it right here including what VALORANT champions teams to root for:
VCT China Kickoff
VCT China Kickoff runs from 11th January to 25th January 2025, organised by Riot Games in collaboration with Tj Sports. Events are held at the VCT CN Arena in Huangpu District, Shanghai, China. EDward Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix, and XLG Esports were dubbed the most likely to win the VCT China Kickoff.
As soon as rosters were declared, the immediate favourite was EDward Gaming, the 2024 World Champions. Some experts note their poor offseason but their solid roster makes them formidable this season.
FunPlus is presented as a prime contender to EDG. They don’t have a similar feat as winning championships but they are consistently among the top placers in all S-Tier and A-tier appearances.
Pundits were pressed to decide on a 3rd title contender among the VCT China roster but eventually decided on XLG Esports. Although the team has few feats compared to EDG, fans’ confidence grew after Ran ‘Viva’ Lifan and Colin ‘Coconut’ Patrick Chung joined the team in December 2024.
Bet on live VALORANT events here
VCT EMEA Kickoff
VALORANT teams in VCT Europe, Middle East, and Africa (VCT EMEA) will convene in Berlin, Germany at the Riot Games Arena organised by Riot Games. The event runs from 15th January to 9th February 2025. The top 3 most likely to win the VCT EMEA Kickoff are Team Heretics, Team Vitality, and Team Liquid.
Predicting the favourites for VCT EMEA has proven difficult because all teams almost completely restructured in the transfer window between 2024 and 2025. The main exception is VCT Champions 2024 runner-up, Team Heretics who kept their roster for the new season.
Team Vitality, meanwhile, signed Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev and Felipe ‘Less’ Basso to join their roster for the VCT 2025 Kickoff. It was a costly but effective move to bolster their odds to win. Team Liquid, on the other hand, is often named a dark horse in the competition in the VALORANT community. Most fans back team captain Ayaz ‘nAtz’ Akhmetshin to lead the squad to success.
VCT Americas Kickoff
The VCT Americas takes place in Los Angeles, California in the United States (US) at the Riot Games Arena. Events run from 16th January to 8th February organised by Riot Games. Tournament favourites for this event include the Sentinels, G2 Esports, and NRG.
Sentinels were easily the favourites of the VCT Americas Kickoff 2025 after having won last year’s Kickoff and Masters. They currently have one of the strongest lineups featuring Marshall ‘N4RRATE’ Massey, Mohamad Amine ‘johnqt’ Ouarid, and Jordan ‘Zellsis’ Montemurro.
Meanwhile, G2 Esports brings their entire 2024 season roster bolstered by Alexander ‘jawgemo’ Tepcchhatraridhi Mor. The team didn’t win any S-tier competition last year but they are always among the top contenders.
NRG is named among the top teams in VCT Americas Kickoff 2025 but some fans have stated their concerns. The team indeed has some of the best players in the 2025 season, especially Pujan ‘FNS’ Mehta and Sam ‘s0m’ Oh who joined in May 2024. However, they are still arguably the underdog if facing the other two series favourites.
VCT Pacific Kickoff
VCT Pacific Kickoff begins on 18th January and will end on 9th February with all events taking place at the Sangam Colesseum in Seoul, South Korea. T1 and Paper Rex were both named as the most likely to win the tournament. Gen.G completes the top 3 of the betting outrights odd.
Fans are most confident with T1 for their consistency, especially with players like Yu ‘BuZz’ Byung-chul joining this season, and Lee ‘carpe’ Jae-hyeok staying since 2022. Meanwhile, team Paper Rex mostly kept last year’s roster and they’ve stayed among the top 3 in various tournaments like 2024 VCT Pacific Stage 2.
Gen.G is a safe bet because they were the 2024 Pacific Kickoff Stage 2 and 2024 Masters Shanghai winners. However, it’s unsure if they can perform as effectively because they’ve replaced 3 of their members. The new arrivals include Byeon ‘Munchkin’ Sang-beom, Chae ‘yoman’ Young-mun, and Jung ‘Foxy9’ Jae-sung.
Explore more competition with Gamdom sports betting
VCT 2025 Kickoff betting markets
The 2025 Kickoff events offer a variety of exciting VCT betting markets for esports fans Gamdom. Here are the key betting options:
- Winner: Bet on who you think will win at the end. It can be the outcome of a match or 1 round out of 3 in a Bo3.
- Winner Three Way: Bet on the outcome with options for either team to win or a tie. It’s usually reserved for a round because a VALORANT game can push for overtime when there’s a 12-12 tie. If it pushes, bets on a tie win.
- Number of Maps (over/under): A ‘map’ refers to 1 round in a Bo3. Bets on over 2.5 wins if the match reaches a 3rd round, otherwise, under 2.5 bets win. For Bo5 matches, you can also bet on 3.5 or 4.5 maps.
- Handicap: Artificial point addition and deduction are applied to the teams in a match. Bets on the advantaged team win as long as they win 1 map in a Bo3. Stakes on the disadvantaged team wins only if they end the match with a 2-0 sweep.
- Number of Maps/Rounds Parity (odd/even): Predict if the total number of maps or rounds will end in an odd or even number.
Checking the team’s most recent stats such as win rates, agent picks, and latest player transfers can help with your predictions with these betting markets.
VCT 2025 Kickoff betting odds in Gamdom
Gamdom supports many betting odds formats for all kinds of gamblers. Here are the Gamdom’s three VCT betting odds formats and how to read them in a gambling context:
- American odds: This can have positive or negative values. Positive odds indicate what you stand to win in United States dollars (USD) if you bet $100 on that outcome. Negative odds show how much you need to stake in USD to win $100.
- Decimal odds: This odds format indicates your overall payout if you win a bet. 1.0 indicates your money back upon winning so outcomes that pay 1:1 your wager are 2.0.
- Hong Kong odds: This format is similar to decimal odds but focuses solely on your profit. Thus, the odds that write 1.0 pays 1:1 of your wager.
Bet on VCT 2025 Kickoff matches at Gamdom
The VCT International Kickoff marks the start of an exciting new season for VALORANT esports. You can follow matches now of your favourite VALORANT champions teams and place your bets on each of their matches.
To enhance your wagers on VCT predictions, make sure to take advantage of special promotions that can give you risk-free bets or bonus cash. Gamdom offers plenty of ways to claim cash bonuses or rakebacks as part of the Royalty Program. All of these are in the service to make VCT betting more exciting and rewarding.
