Valorant’s premier EMEA League had to shut down the broadcast after tech pauses made matches genuinely unplayable for the Team Liquid vs. Karmine Corp match on Week 5 Day 3.
The match went for over 3 hours before Riot pulled the plug on it, with that time being made up more of tech pauses than actual gameplay.
Multiple rounds had to be rolled back in order to make things fair for teams, broadcast talent had to do their best to fill several minutes of empty air, and the players were visibly frustrated. This resulted in Riot issuing a formal apology to fans and postponing the day’s matches until further notice.
However, pros didn’t take this sitting down. Big names like TenZ and Derke stepped in to comment on it, calling out Riot and rallying for change in order to create a better competitive environment.
Riot ends broadcast after disastrous VCT EMEA match
Things didn’t start strong, with 3 separate tech pauses being called by the time round 2 was done. Things didn’t improve much from there, with constant tech-related interruptions eventually resulting in the match being called off.
Even the pros who were playing in the match took jabs at Riot, with TL’s nAts saying “Won the 1st map, but the next map in a week,” on X right after going up 1-0. He was unintentionally correct considering they had to postpone the broadcast, making the next map literally next week.
paTiTek, another Team Liquid member, simply said, “what a f*cking joke”, telling Riot to “step it up”.
Karmine Corp’s SUYGETSU commented on their loss to TL in the first map, saying “Sorry guys sh*tshow, nothing we could do or change, we tried to keep our mental good and etc. But there some things which you cannot handle sometimes,” after the result of the match.
Fortunately for Karmine Corp, the result of that first map is being entirely rescinded with matches being postponed, giving them a shot at beating TL in a better environment. However, Vitality star Derke directly called out Riot, claiming their infrastructure is a huge part of the reason why things like this happen.
“A lot of the issues we’re dealing with now have been ongoing since the beginning of franchising. In the first year or two, we raised concerns and were told to ‘be patient.’ But now it’s year three, and nothing seems to be improving,” Derke claimed.
Michal Konkol/Riot Games“I’ll be honest: the gear we’re playing on could be a lot better. We’ve been giving feedback on the monitors for ages, and I honestly don’t even know what the reasoning is anymore—because every time we bring it up, we’re given a different answer.
“The PCs aren’t optimized, settings change constantly, and most tech pauses are due to the game stuttering so badly. IT checks it and if they see it or not – we just keep playing. No fixes. This week, we were told we’d be playing online on stage with 30 ping (I get 7 at home) to combat performance issues and tech pauses. But that’s not going to solve anything if the core issue—the hardware isn’t fixed. Everyone, LAN or online, is still experiencing stutters.”
He also claimed that the EMEA players have it especially bad and are using PCs meant for League of Legends rather than Valorant. LoL is a much lighter game than Valorant in terms of how hard it is on your PC. And, with pros requiring a smooth experience in order to maintain competitive integrity, he claims that Riot just hasn’t done enough to give them viable setups. No amount of tech pauses will fix that sort of hardware issue.
“We’ve raised these concerns every split, every year, hoping for progress. I truly hope that now with everyone aware of these issues real improvements can finally happen,” Derke concluded.
TenZ also got involved, saying that tech issues like this are a huge part of why he retired from pro play.
Reece Martinez/Riot Games“One of the most disappointing things about making it to Tier 1 is realizing that the best players and teams aren’t always given the best conditions to perform at their highest potential. What’s most disheartening isn’t that it happened once, it’s that this has been a recurring issue since the inception of the VCT circuit. It’s absolutely unacceptable that we’re still facing the same problems after all this time, despite players constantly raising these concerns with seemingly no resolution,” TenZ said.
“This was definitely one of the biggest contributing factors that led to my decision to hang up the mouse. I’ve been hearing horror stories about the EMEA league for a long time now. What’s even the point of franchising and hosting matches on LAN if they’re going to be played on online servers? It’s unreal, and Riot needs to do better.”
Riot Games apologized for tech issues on this day specifically, offering in-person attendees a full refund for their tickets and promising to reschedule matches. However, it isn’t clear what Riot plans to do in order to address scathing criticism from some of their biggest pros.
