What went wrong at the VALORANT North American LCQ

VALORANT’s North American Last Chance Qualifier is the final opportunity for several teams to qualify for VALORANT Champions 2021, the largest and most anticipated VALORANT tournament of the year. But when the event ran into technical hiccups on Day 1, more problems kept cropping up.

Eventually, developer Riot Games confirmed this offline tournament was being played on an online server. Lag, frame-dropping and frequent pauses became the talk of the tournament until on Day 2 of the event, Riot announced it would postpone the VALORANT NA LCQ. But the problems with the event started well before Oct. 12, be it because of miscommunication between Riot and teams or the complexity of putting together an offline event during an ongoing pandemic.

Here’s the story of how what was supposed to be a highlight of the year for some North American VALORANT teams became a disaster.

A region ‘left in the dark’

On Jan. 31, Riot Games announced that the Oceanic region would send two teams to the North American LCQ for a chance to compete internationally.

“We know that VALORANT has been supported by Oceania players since beta, and we are thrilled to be offering pathways for the region,” said Chris Greeley, the Director of Esports at Riot Games, in the reveal.

Throughout the year, there were several stages of events where teams competed to earn a spot at the Oceanic Tour Championship, which culminated on Sept. 12, just one month prior to the North American LCQ. ORDER and Chiefs (previously known as PEACE), both hailing from Australia, finished in first and second place, respectively, to ensure qualification for their first big international event.

Prior to the Oceanic Tour Championship, Riot Games approached teams regarding travel to and from the LCQ. This allowed for around six to eight weeks of processing, as first reported by Dexerto.

After the event concluded, team managers worked with Riot Games to ensure their players could travel to the U.S. and meet COVID-19 restrictions present in Australia and the States. Unfortunately, Riot and the teams had a distinct lack of experience regarding the leaving exemptions necessary for Australian citizens, according to the report and confirmed by one player that spoke to Upcomer under the condition of anonymity.

One manager asked Riot if they would have to deal with the leaving exemption process, but the tournament organizer told them they would “handle it.” One team asked Riot an important question regarding travel to the event only to be ignored. This question was asked about “seven times,” a source said, and still went unanswered.

Riot eventually organized departure flights for the teams, but players still didn’t know how they would return home. The flights out of the U.S. couldn’t be booked until Nov. 15, which would’ve kept the players in a foreign country for an extended period of time during a global pandemic.

“We’re left in the dark until the end,” one player said.

With little time to sort out many complications organizers were unprepared for, Riot announced on Oct. 4 that both ORDER and Chiefs would not be able to attend the event due to “COVID-19 regulations, travel documentation issues and additional complex factors.” Both teams expressed their disappointment with the matter on social media and described the situation as “preventable.”