You keep mixing two different things together.
You never needed any specific valor to get CHAMPION gear.
But you need valor 60 to get BATTLEMASTER gear.
BATTLEMASTER > CHAMPION.
1) Centurion, 2) Champion, 3) Battlemaster.
And yes, you still need valor 60 to get BATTLEMASTER gear after the patch. But they changed the way battlemaster bags work, so now they give you tokens that you can exchange for the items you want, instead of it being totally random.