The Collegiate Esports Invitational Opens Registration to Compete in the Largest NCAA Valorant Tournament

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GCN, Inc. (Gaming Community Network), part of the GameSquare Esports group of companies, and Van Wagner announced today the second-ever Collegiate Esports Invitational Featuring Valorant as students can now register for free through www.CollegiateEsportsInvitational.com and have a chance to win cash prizes with a prize pool of $10,000.

The tournament will start on November 13, with the top eight teams moving on to the quarterfinals on November 20. The championship rounds will begin on November 21 and will be streamed live on twitch.tv/CollegiateEsportsInv, so fans can watch who brings home the title and has the best Valorant squad. The finals will also be carried by GCN across 85+ gaming and esports centric websites to enhance viewership and messaging. GCN reaches 65M+ monthly uniques in the U.S.

The $10,000 total prize pool will be distributed with first place taking home $5,000, second place with $2,500, third place with $1,000 and fourth place will win $500. For teams that come in fifth through eighth place, they will each bring home $250.

Billed as "Where Conference Champions Are Crowned," the event is free to enter and open to all students from the 110 colleges and universities across the nation in the America East Conference, Big South Conference, Big West Conference, Colonial Athletic Association, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Southland Conference, Sun Belt Conference, West Coast Conference, Western Athletic Conference and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. 

"After the success of our first Collegiate Esports Invitational, we're thrilled to bring back another tournament to allow students across the country from the select conferences to compete to be the best Valorant player," said Chris Kindt, Chief Marketing Officer of GCN. "It's exciting to once again have a top collegiate esports tournament and one with the popularity of Valorant for students to showcase their skills and win cash prizes."

In the inaugural Collegiate Esports Invitational featuring Fortnite held in May, a duo team from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) took home the title and $5,000. The 10 conference tournaments and Championship garnered more than 651,000 live views and during the Championship tournament, more than 256,000 unique viewers tuned in.

The Collegiate Esports Invitational continues in 2022 with an additional tournament and more information will be announced at a later date. 

SOURCE Gaming Community Network