A number of Esports are in their off-seasons right now and the same applies to VALORANT with a handful of regional events taking place at the start of 2023.

One of those is the VALORANT BEACON Open, which begins on Wednesday and runs through to Sunday.

The C-Tier event, organized by both Riot Games and Promod Esports, is an online tournament featuring teams from across the UK, Ireland and the Nordic region.

The prize pool stands at a relatively small €5,750 but the event is once again a good opportunity to assess the smaller sides across the continent and the sides which finish first and second in the VALORANT BEACON Open will secure spots in the VALORANT Challengers League 2023: Polaris Stage One.

The VALORANT BEACON Open features ten teams competing in a double-elimination bracket with matches played in a best-of-three format and the action starts on Wednesday with two games in round one of the upper-bracket.

OnlyFins take on Duck Gaming and Wintermint lock horns with Insight Gaming in the two first-round encounters.

OnlyFins expected to go well again

What	OnlyFins vs Duck Gaming, VALORANT BEACON Open
Where	Online
When	18:00, Wednesday 4th January 2023
How to watch	N/A
Odds	OnlyFins -1200, Duck Gaming +600

It is not a particularly competitive betting heat but the clash between OnlyFins and Duck Gaming in round one of the VALORANT BEACON Open upper-bracket could be worth keeping an eye on.

OnlyFins, who are -1200 to win this contest against Duck Gaming, are arguably the most notable team at the event.

They have performed pretty well in recent C-Tier events, coming out on top in the Finnish Esports League VALORANT Cup in December, defeating FOKUS 2-0 in the final.

Prior to the VALORANT BEACON Cup finals which are taking place this week, teams competed in a variety of minors and majors to get to this stage and, although OnlyFins disappointed in the Guild Academy Major, they came out on top in the Finland Minor beforehand.

This is the second split of the VALORANT BEACON Cup and in the finals of the first one back in August, it was OnlyFins who rose to the top.

They started in the upper-bracket on that occasion but were knocked down to the lower bracket by Unsigned.

However, they then stormed through the lower bracket, sweeping aside the likes of NOFFEN, Gladius Gaming and AW3 before reaching the Grand Final, in which they got their revenge against Unsigned, beating them 2-0 to take the title.

In a pretty small event, OnlyFins are the big fish in a small pond and should justify favoritism.

That said, OnlyFins won two of their games in those previous aforementioned finals by 2-1 scorelines and a 2-1 win for them could be worth value at +275.

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Expect high-scoring affair between Wintermint and Insight Gaming

What	Wintermint vs Insight Gaming, VALORANT BEACON Open
Where	Online
When	18:00, Wednesday 4th January 2023
How to watch	N/A
Odds	Wintermint -350, Insight Gaming +250

While the winners of OnlyFins versus Duck Gaming will go on to play The Barbers in the upper-bracket quarter-finals, the winners of Wintermint versus Insight Gaming will lock horns with Les Petit Bouffons in the next stage.

Wintermint are favourites to come out on top at -350 with Insight Gaming available at +250.

That seems a fair assessment with Wintermint arguably edging Insight Gaming in VALORANT BEACON Cup experience, having featured in the event's finals during split one.

On that occasion, Wintermint lost their first upper-bracket contest to eventual finalists Unsigned, dropping down to the lower bracket, in which they won only one match before being completely eliminated from the event in the lower-bracket quarter-finals 2-1 by Gladius Gaming.

They could have the edge in this one but that aforementioned performance is arguably not enough to warrant backing them at a short price and over 2.5 maps could instead be the way to play it at +125.

A 2-1 win for Wintermint, meanwhile, can be backed at +225, while a win by the same scoreline for Insight Gaming is +275.