Both Oceanic VALORANT teams that secured qualification for the North American Last Chance Qualifier — ORDER and Chiefs Esports Club — will not attend the event, Riot Games said today in a statement.
The tournament organizer and game developer said it could not ensure ORDER and Chiefs Esports Club’s attendance to and from the event. As a result, both teams will be compensated and the event will move to an eight team tournament. This means that an Oceanic team will not attend VALORANT Champions later this year.
“Due to COVID-19 regulations, travel documentation issues, and additional complex factors, we could not ensure that these teams could travel, compete in the event, and return home in a reasonable timeframe,” Riot Games said.
The event will feature eight teams instead of ten and Riot will not replace the Oceanic teams with two North American teams. Version1, FaZe Clan, Cloud9 Blue, Rise, Luminosity, Gen.G, 100 Thieves and XSET will attend the event.
Riot did not attempt to book flights for the two teams until last week and the organizer was lacking in experience to ensure the correct documentation was provided, according to Dexerto journalist Andrew “Ducky” Amos. The process was “disjointed” compared to the handling of the League of Legends division, Amos said.
Both Chiefs Esports Club (formerly PEACE) and ORDER originally secured qualification for the event earlier this month following the conclusion of the Oceania Tour: Championship. The eight team event concluded with ORDER defeating PEACE in the grand final to secure the 8,000 AUD ($5,833.20) prize.
Oceanic region’s last chance now gone
This event was the last chance for players and teams in the Oceanic region to secure qualification for the largest and most anticipated VALORANT event of the year. Champions, which is set to begin on Dec. 2, is the final culmination of the 2021 VCT circuit, with the best teams in the world attending.
There are four slots remaining at Champions with North America, EMEA, South America and Asia each allocated one slot for the victor of each region’s Last Chance Qualifier.
Further details on the broadcast schedule and updated bracket will be released soon, Riot said.
