Riot Games is currently qualifying teams throughout the world for its first official international Valorant event, First Strike. This includes a two-phase competition currently taking place in MENA (the Middle East and North Africa).
Strike Arabia was announced as part of the rollout for Riot’s regional competitions that will make up the First Strike event. Valorant will host a series of high-level international competitions. In MENA, teams qualified for their championship event through three sub-regional events in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, North Africa, Levant, and Egypt.
The tournament establishes MENA as an official competitive region for Valorant esports going forward. Generally, the region is either underserved or unrepresented in official global competitions for most esports. For example, there is currently no MENA slot for the League of Legends World Championship.
The qualifying rounds of the event reached over 13K unique average viewers, brought roughly 290 teams together for online competition, and brought in sponsorship from Saudi Telecom Company and Logitech.
