VCT 2026 match-day rules: arrival times, pauses and gear for players

A Valorant match on a Riot stage looks like five players, a coach and a map. Behind it sits a long text that decides when those players must be in the building, what they may plug into the computer, how many times they may stop the game and where they may walk between two maps. That text is the VALORANT Champions Tour Official Competition Ruleset, which Riot Games last updated on December 18, 2025 for the 2026 season.

Most of it is invisible to viewers until something goes wrong: a pause that runs long, a round played again, a substitute walking on stage. This guide follows the order of a match day as the ruleset describes it, from arrival and setup to equipment, the Match Area, timeouts and challenges, technical and emergency pauses, crashes and bugs, the time between maps, and the authority of the officials who apply it all.

VALORANT Champions Tour Official Competition Ruleset, last updated December 18, 2025.

Which competitions the ruleset governs

The ruleset belongs to VALORANT Champions Tour LLC and its affiliates, which it calls Riot, and to the four leagues of the Valorant Champions Tour, known as the VCT: VCT Americas, VCT Pacific, VCT EMEA and VCT China. It covers regional, cross-regional and international competitions, played live or online. Each organization fields its team under a written contract with the league, the Team Participation Agreement, and accepting the ruleset is a core term of that contract.

The text does not stand alone. It supplements Riot's global esports policies for Valorant rather than replacing them, and the league may add an event-specific ruleset for a given tournament, which sets details such as the game patch or the map pool. The league may also issue guidance documents to clarify a rule, and once sent to teams they become part of the ruleset.

Responsibility is collective. A team is treated as responsible for breaches by its owners, players, coaches and staff, even when the organization itself was not at fault. When the league disciplines a breach, with fines, suspensions or disqualification among the options, it does so in compliance with the Riot Games Esports Global Code of Conduct and the Team Participation Agreement. The league may amend the ruleset from time to time, but no amendment may change a material term of a team's contract.

Arrival and the schedule of the day

Match day starts with a clock. The ruleset requires the members of a team's Active Roster, the players registered to play, to be at the venue no later than ninety minutes before their scheduled match time at a LAN event, meaning one played in person. For an online match, players must be ready to join the match lobby no later than 30 minutes before the scheduled time. League officials decide whether lateness is sanctioned.

The schedule can move. Officials may reorder the matches of a day, move a match to another date or change the schedule in any other way, and must tell the teams as soon as possible. Teams follow the pre-match schedule the officials hand them, which may set arrival and departure times, media obligations, hair and makeup, the map pick-and-ban phase and setup.

Entry to the venue has its own checks. Team personnel confirm their identity with officials before entering for an official match, and officials may check health, for example by taking a temperature. Anyone judged unhealthy is refused entry or asked to leave, even during a match, and a team may have to field a substitute in that case.

Map selection comes early. For the first match of a day, it starts at least 60 minutes before the first map; for later matches, it starts when the teams arrive. The pool holds seven maps, listed in each event's own ruleset, and a map cannot be played twice in one match unless every other map has already been played.

Setting up the station

Every player competes on a Tournament Realm account, an account created for official play, named with the team's official tag and the player's official tournament handle. Some game settings are fixed: blood and bodies are turned off, frame-rate and latency trackers are disabled during play, and titles and gun buddies earned by winning events such as Masters, Champions or Game Changers Champions may be equipped only by the players who earned them.

At a LAN event, teams receive set blocks of time before their match, with a length decided by the officials. The ruleset lists what setup covers: confirming the account name, checking the equipment the league provides, connecting and calibrating peripherals, testing voice chat, selecting skins, adjusting settings and a limited warm-up. Once players are in the Match Area, the space around the competition computers, they may not leave without an official's permission and an escort. Players may ask for lighting changes, within a minimum stage light level that cannot be lowered, and must tell an official at once if equipment fails.

A referee confirms each player's setup no fewer than five minutes before the scheduled start. Once all ten players have confirmed, nobody may enter a warm-up match or leave the Match Area, and a minor problem with settings found after that point does not justify a pause or a delay.

Online play shifts the burden. Players complete setup and confirm readiness at the time officials set, and they are responsible for their own hardware, peripherals, internet connection, DDoS protection and power. Problems with any of these are not accepted as reasons for lateness or for pauses beyond what the team is allowed.

What players may bring

The equipment rules split the station between what the league supplies and what players may bring. At a LAN event, players may bring their own or their team's keyboards, mice with cord holders, mousepads and in-ear headphones. The headset and microphone are a different matter: section 2.1.1 says players may not bring, use or wear any headset or microphone that league officials have not provided.

Approval is not a formality. Team equipment may be inspected before a match, including during testing blocks, and teams may be asked to hand it in at a set time. Equipment that has not been approved, or that officials suspect gives an unfair advantage, is barred, and the player then uses league equipment. Officials may also refuse an item for security, safety, operational reasons or inappropriate imagery, and gear showing the name or logo of a competitor of Riot or Valorant is banned, with logos covered on request. Spare sets are allowed when approved in advance; a player without an approved spare falls back on league equipment.

Changing league equipment without authorization, or using hardware or software that has not been approved, is treated as cheating. Any player or official may ask for a technical review of a suspected equipment problem, and a technician diagnoses it, but the decision to replace anything rests with the league alone.

Software, sound and screen

At a LAN event, players and coaches may not install their own programs and use only those the league provides, on the warm-up computers too. Voice chat runs only through the native system in league headsets: third-party software such as Discord is barred online and on LAN unless officials approve it in advance, and officials may monitor team audio. League computers may not be used for social media, forums, message boards or email, and no device other than permitted equipment, such as a phone or a flash drive, may be connected to them.

Several rules govern inputs. Macros are banned when they run outside the Valorant client, whether in software or in a device's onboard memory. Snap Tap, SOCD and similar keyboard technology are allowed unless officials say otherwise. Players may use MS Paint and Notepad before and after a match, but must close them before it starts.

Sound and image have limits too. Volume must stay above the minimum setting, and headphones rest directly on the ears for the whole match with nothing in between, with exceptions for religious articles and medical devices such as a hijab, a dastar, a yarmulke or a hearing device, judged by officials. At LAN events, only the screen resolutions offered natively by the game client may be used. Once a match has started, no player may touch another player's equipment.

Inside the Match Area

During play, only the players of both teams and their permitted coaches may be in the Match Area. Up to eight team personnel, players included, may be there during preparation, but staff leave before the first round and return only when the match ends. A team may designate one Match Coach on stage, with an assistant coach if officials allow; without a designation, the Head Coach takes the role. The Match Coach may speak to the team during the map pick-and-ban phase and agent selection.

Devices are removed. Phones, tablets and smartwatches are barred from the Match Area and the team huddle rooms from the start of agent select to the end of the final round, and officials may extend the ban to the whole match. Personal accessories need approval. Paper is restricted as well: players may not bring any written or printed material into the Match Area during a match. The Match Coach may bring written material, but must keep it in a designated area.

Drinks are allowed only in resealable containers approved by the league, and gum is allowed. Food, tobacco and other nicotine products are not, and the area must be left without trash or gum.

Timeouts and challenges

A tactical timeout is a short stop a team calls to talk strategy. Each team has two per map, each of 60 seconds, usable at any point of the first 24 rounds, which the ruleset calls Regulation, regardless of the half. In overtime each team receives one more, and unused Regulation timeouts do not carry over. A timeout must be called within the first 20 seconds of a Buy Phase, the short period when players purchase weapons at the start of a round; a later call moves to the next round, unless that round comes after the end of the half or of Regulation, in which case the timeout is spent with no extra time. The 60 seconds start once both Match Coaches are connected to their players. During a timeout, communication is limited to players and coaches, headsets stay on, nobody leaves the Match Area and nobody moves an agent or uses abilities.

The challenge is the VCT's review system for bugs and exploits. Only the Match Coach may request one, within the first 20 seconds of the Buy Phase of the round after the disputed one, and only about that round. Each team has one challenge per map, and a team must have at least one timeout left to use it. Officials review the round and their decision cannot be appealed. A successful challenge keeps both the challenge and the timeout and may lead to a round being rolled back or forfeited, or a map forfeited; an unsuccessful one costs the challenge and a timeout.

Technical and emergency pauses

Players do not pause the game themselves. To stop for a technical problem, a player tells a league official and gives the reason, and the Head Referee grants the pause only if the reason is valid. Starting a technical pause in the game without approval can bring a delay-of-game sanction for the team. The ruleset sorts technical pauses into two kinds.

During a technical pause, headsets stay on, nobody moves an agent and all talk between players and coaches is barred unless an official instructs otherwise. Some reasons never earn a pause: pressing a monitor's power button by accident, small audio adjustments or adjusting in-ear headphones.

The Player Emergency Pause is a separate allowance. Each team may take one per map, within a total of ten minutes across the match. A team that goes over the total loses the players who used the pause for the rest of the match and must replace them, although officials may grant more time at their discretion. A team unable to field five players forfeits unless an official decides otherwise, and misuse of the pause for anything other than an emergency is sanctioned.

Crashes, bugs and exploits

When play is interrupted for reasons outside the players' control, such as a server crash or an internet or power outage, officials restore the game to the start of the most recent round. Problems caused by a player, such as switching out of the game window or turning off a monitor, stop nothing. Short interruptions that do not last the rest of the round do not lead to a replay either. If two or more players cannot finish a round for reasons beyond their control, the round is restored. A single player's crash leads to a restore only when it happens within the first minute of the round, before the opposing team has damaged anyone, and a referee is told at once; otherwise the round is played out and reviewed afterwards.

Bugs, flaws in the game that produce an unintended result, are classified in an Esports Bug List shared with each patch. Officials may roll back a round for a bug that hinders a player before any damage has been dealt, but not once a player has damaged an opponent, except through a challenge; a bug listed as game-breaking always sends the round back to its start. New content waits too: a new agent stays restricted for about two weeks after its release in the live competitive queue, and a new map for about four weeks, 28 days, unless officials change those periods.

An exploit, a bug a player triggers to gain an unintended advantage, is banned by default and penalized when detected. The ruleset gives examples: Cypher cameras placed to be indestructible or hidden, any agent's abilities placed to exploit map textures or geometry, and using another agent's character model to reach a spot beyond normal jumping range. Officials weigh the bug list, whether the team was told about the exploit in time, its impact and the intent, which includes whether the team discussed it in voice chat and whether a referee was told right away. The outcomes run from a warning to a round rolled back or lost, a map forfeit or, for conduct that irreversibly harms the integrity of the match, a match forfeit.

Between maps and after the match

Between two maps of a series, officials tell players how much time is left, and the next map starts once both teams confirm that their players are ready and, on LAN, seated. During that transition players may move only between the Match Area, their team's huddle room and their team's designated restroom, unless officials authorize another place. Between matches, a team must be ready to enter the Match Area within five minutes of the previous match ending.

A substitution is also made between maps. The team must tell its opponent and get a referee's approval no later than two minutes after the previous game ends, and the substitute must enter the Match Area and finish setup within seven minutes. A team may also substitute a player who disconnected and cannot return within the pause time allowed.

After the match, officials confirm the result, players report any technical issue they had, and they complete post-match obligations such as media appearances and interviews. A forfeited match is recorded at the minimum winning score, 1-0 in a best-of-one, 2-0 in a best-of-three and 3-0 in a best-of-five, with every forfeited map recorded as 13-0. For international competitions, the league covers reasonable travel, accommodation and meals for five starters, one substitute, a head coach and a team manager of each qualified team, while players are responsible for holding their passports, visas and travel documents.

Officials and conduct on match day

Three roles run a match. The Match Operations Lead rules on questions of competitive integrity: technical pauses and their length, timeouts, bugs and exploits, round rollbacks and the map pick-and-ban process. The Head Referee handles setup, the lobby, lineups and peripherals, announces the start, orders pauses and resumes play, informs teams of in-match sanctions and confirms the result. Stage Referees work under both, control access to the Match Area and enforce the player checklist. The Match Operations Lead has sole authority to interpret the ruleset and decide misconduct penalties, and those decisions are final and cannot be appealed.

The ruleset's own conduct section is short. Teams that miss schedules or match-process deadlines may be sanctioned for delay of game. Players, coaches and staff must cooperate with officials and follow their instructions promptly; failing to do so during a live match can bring a delay-of-game sanction and further discipline. Unprofessional or hostile behavior toward officials, such as yelling, belligerence or refusing to cooperate, is a breach in itself. Any discipline must also be consistent with Riot's global code of conduct, the separate text that sets conduct rules across Riot's competitions.

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