The North American Last Chance Qualifier was highly anticipated as the first domestic LAN event in VALORANT history. The event planned to see the final NA teams battle it out for the last remaining spot for VCT Champions. The event has been fraught with trials and tribulations. This has resulted in the indefinite postponement of the event.
Per the VCT NA Twitter, “out of an abundance of caution and with the health and safety of all involved being top of mind, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the event until further notice.” Alongside this, the event will be transitioned into an fully online tournament. There has been no indication of whenever the event will be rescheduled and resumed.
Both the presence of positive COVID-19 tests and reoccurring server issues led to massive concerns over the LAN event. Players forced to play at the venue were actually at a disadvantage when competing against those playing remotely. Now the competitive integrity of the event has been called into question, it is unclear whether the tournament will completely restart or simply pick up where it left off.
As for the COVID scare, two players from FaZe Clan allegedly tested positive for the virus. Both players claimed that the tests were false positives, however guidelines for health and safety still required both to quarantine once again.
This is certainly not the way Riot Games wanted to kick off domestic LAN for VALORANT, however the ongoing pandemic has greatly complicated the esports industry. This likely won’t be the last domestic LAN, but there is plenty to improve on before the beginning of the next competitive year.
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