The North American Last Chance Qualifier was intended to be a tense, final opporunity for teams to compete for the last remaining VCT Champions spot. With some of the best teams currently shortlisted from the climatic finish in VALORANT’s inaugural competitive season, the stage was set. The NA LCQ in reality has been a disaster plagued with internet issues, COVID positive players, and general discontent.
Players have not been silent about their complaints, and the legitimacy of the qualifier has already been called into question. Here are the biggest problems that turned the LCQ into a disaster and options Riot has to salvage the remainder of the event.
LAN event, online servers
Riot Games heralded the Last Chance Qualifiers as the first domestic LAN tournaments across several regions. While Masters Reykjavik and Berlin saw LAN play, all qualifying tournaments thus far had been online. Players previously unable to attend LAN events finally would get a chance to show their prowess with zero ping.
The problem is that the NA LCQ is not a true ‘LAN’ event. Instead of playing with an on-site server, all games have continued to be played on online servers based out of Northern California. This has resulted in poor connection issues and players experiencing lag spikes in official competitive games.
Released player comms, such as those from 100 Thieves, have shown that the poor connection has drastically effected their game play. Due to this, players who are currently playing from home or another quarantined facility actually have an advantage over those playing in the venue.
The LANdemic
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has largely halted esports LAN events in their tracks. The NA LCQ have shown that players may not be ready to entirely return to physical venues. Two FaZe Clan players, Andrej “Babybay” Francisty and Corey “corey” Nigra both tested positive for COVID-19.
The two claim that the tests are false positives, given that they were given rapid tests and had previously tested negative several times before. Prior to the event, Rise member Ryan “Shanks” Ngo also allegedly tested positive for the virus. Several members have been forced to compete at separate locations while undergoing quarantine once again.
Whether or not the tests were false positives has not been confirmed and as a response Riot Games has postponed the games set for Wednesday, Oct. 13th. This was not confirmed until later in the day, as fans awaited the stream countdown only to be met by further and further delays.
How can Riot save the LCQ?
There are two apparent options in front of Riot to salvage what is left of the event. The first is to host the rest of the tournament online. While it would be a waste of a venue, the LAN have severely hindered the use of a physical space. This is most likely the route that Riot will have to take, especially with the presence of COVID-19, whether the tests were false positives or not.
The second is to wait out the quarantine and play on actual LAN servers. This would likely result in more compelling games and satisfy their goal of returning domestic play to LAN. It could potentially alter the timeline of the VCT, as the LCQs are meant to have a quick turnaround into VCT Champions. Either way, the current disaster cannot continue to commit to this poorly executed, half LAN half online state.
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