Riot Suspends Day 2 of Valorant NA LCQ After Event Issues
With Valorant Champions slated for December, the VCT LCQ have become a hot contest for tons of teams who want to earn their spot at the first Worlds-level event for Valorant. However, there’s been a slew of issues plaguing NA Valorant’s LCQ, ranging from issues with servers and Riot PCs to problems with Covid-19 preventing teams from participating on stage for the LCQ event.
With the grand finals slated for broadcast across movie theater screens across the United States, the issues plaguing NA’s LCQ do not bode well for Riot’s reputation among the Valorant community and among pro teams who want nothing but a balanced, well-planned event. Now, day 2 of the NA LCQ will be put on hold as Riot attempts to resolve all the issues plaguing the event.
All the Issues Facing Valorant’s NA LCQ – A Brief Timeline
Starting with Oceania teams unable to attend NA’s LCQ, issues have been ramping up for what many expected to be an exciting and attention-grabbing event.
On day 1 of the NA LCQs, teams began experiencing server and connectivity issues as evidenced in this clip posted by our own Jake Lucky. The official Twitter account for Valorant Champions Tour NA would post the following statement in regards to the revelation that games were being played not on LAN, but on a virtual server.
Day 2 would see two players from FaZe, FaZe Baybay and FaZe Corey test positive on rapid-fire Covid-19 tests that would force FaZe to play from their practice rooms rather than on stage. Seeing that FaZe were practicing from home, according to a statement from Rise player Shanks, this did not bode well for their match meant to be played on day 2 of the NA LCQ.
“I’m double vaccinated,” FaZe Baybay would say in a Twitter space hosted by Upcomer’s George Geddes. Due to Los Angeles County considering a positive test, regardless of the test being a false positive, as evidence of someone having Covid-19, FaZe Clan’s match against Rise was put on hold. The possibility of Version1’s game against Cloud9 Blue was up in the air, as Jordan ‘Zellsis’ Montemurro would admit to being in a restaurant during Geddes’ Twitter Space, despite the fact that the FaZe Clan and Rise game had been postponed and his match was slated to begin afterward.
During Geddes’ Twitter Space, XSET player Bryce ‘PureR’ Lovell would remark on the poor quality of PCs Riot provided for the event, stating that the computers were benchmarked for 140 FPS, meaning that this was the minimum FPS rate that the PCs could push out in order to be considered usable for the event. An XSET coach would also chime in to comment on the state of practice rooms, stating that teams were experiencing fluctuating internet during practice and a lack of concessions and furnishing for XSET, while Cloud9 were able to enjoy couches in their room.
Riot’s Statement on Valorant NA LCQ Issues
— VALORANT Champions Tour NA (@valesports_na) October 13, 2021
Riot released a statement in regards to the issues compounding at NA LCQ, stating that conflicting test results and the exercise of caution necessitated that day 2 of NA LCQ for Valorant would need to be “paused” until tournament organizers could find a way to resume the event in a safe manner.
So far, Riot has made no statement in regards to issues with suboptimal equipment and other logistics problems that have come up during the event. As a result of the event being postponed, two matches will have to be played on other days, which could influence the date of NA LCQ grand finals.
As this story is developing, we’ll continue to cover any new details as they arise.
Comments