Valorant Act 1 Challenge

If you ever wanted to play VALORANT against streamers and pros, then the Alpha vs Omega ACT 1 Challenge is for you

New Year, New You. If your New Year’s Resolution was to line up and play VALORANT against a vacuous list of streamers and “broadcast talent,” then it would seem as if 2026 may well be the year you can keep your promise to yourself.

Pulling off something far easier than Dry January, or not having to face a wall of naked genitalia in a gym changing room, has got to be a good thing, so Riot has your back with this new VALORANT event – the Alpha vs Omega ACT 1 Challenge.

What is the Alpha vs Omega ACT 1 Challenge?

130 EMEA creators, co-streamers, broadcast hosts and pro players will take part. Notable names include M1xwell (Spain), beyAz (France), da1moN (Türkiye), Harmii (DACH), Petra (Netherlands) and Yinsu (UK).

To start with, you get to choose a Faction – either Alpha or Omega, or you can even take a short quiz to receive a recommended side.

In-game awards will be handed out each week to the winning faction. Winning sides will claim exclusive Player Cards, and those who earn the most points each week will score some physical merchandise on top of helping their team.

The event pages aren’t working for us at the moment – we are getting errors, but you can get some further info on the announcement here.

Everything seems to run for the next 28 days, so jumping in immediately is not necessary, unless you want to really challenge the leaderboard or team up with your streaming pals.

How to sign up for the ACT 1 Challenge

To sign up for the challenge and everything it brings to your life, you can visit this link and off you go.

The last time we looked at VALORANT, it was for a closer look at how Riot is attempting to shackle the game’s cheaters – so hopefully there will be a few less of them about here.


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Paul McNally
Managing Editor
Paul McNally has been around consoles and computers since his parents bought him a Mattel Intellivision in 1980. He has been a prominent games journalist since the 1990s, spending over a decade as editor of popular print-based video games and computer magazines, including a market-leading PlayStation title. Paul has written high-end gaming content for GamePro, Official Australian PlayStation Magazine, PlayStation Pro, Amiga Action, Mega Action, ST Action, GQ, Loaded, and the The Mirror. He has also hosted panels at retro-gaming conventions and can regularly be found guesting on gaming podcasts and Twitch shows. Believing that the reader deserves actually to enjoy what they are reading is a big part of Paul’s ethos when it comes to gaming journalism, elevating the sites he works on above the norm. Reach out on X.