Riot has big plans for Valorant esports, with a new Ignition Series set to launch next week.

The Ignition Series will be like the Overwatch League, with multiple events around the world. The first events in the series will be the G2 Esports Valorant Invitational and the Rage Valorant Japan Invitational on June 19, 2020.

The G2 Invitational will feature eight teams from across the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region competing for €15,000 in prize money and will run from June 19-21. In another move similar to the Overwatch League, teams will be divided by region rather than by sponsor, with teams from the UK, DACH, Scandinavia, Poland, France, the Balkans, Beleu and Iberia.

A key feature of the G2 Invitational is that the captain of each team does not know who will be playing on their team until the day before the tournament begins; G2 says this is to reward "adaptability, communication and teamwork," but the ironic part is that it's also a great way to build drama and tension at the same time.

The Rage Invitational, on the other hand, is a more traditional esports event with a prize pool of 500,000 yen (4127 euros) for 16 teams, and teams such as DetonatioN Gaming and Jupiter have been invited to compete here. The full list of participants is still to be confirmed. The full list of participants has not yet been finalized, but more details will be announced on June 16.

In North America, no events have been announced yet, but the dates are known as Riot has confirmed that the Ignition Series will begin its US stretch between June 26 and 28. Another event in Europe on those dates will be announced in the near future.

Valorant was launched just a few weeks ago on June 6, with tournaments already taking place on several continents and a reasonable prize pool (if not as large as The International).

The Valorant Ignition Series will begin with the G2 Invitational on June 19 and can be watched live on G2's Twitch stream.