Valorant Champions Tour NA LCQ Is Marred by Technical Issues

The Valorant Champions Tour’s North America (NA) Last Chance Qualifiers (LCQ) experienced a rough start with the tournament organizers hosting the event on online servers, despite it being a LAN event. It led to numerous technical issues and a number of players participating in the event were not happy. After several complaints made by players, Riot Games stated that it will work towards improving the experience but it does not look like the event will go back to LAN servers as intended.

Why are players unhappy with the Valorant Champions Tour NA LCQ

Riot Games has worked hard on the presentation of the event, with Senior Visual Designer Ayriel “Awktopian” Hunt talking about how the stage is meant to be a “Mad Max meets Fight Club meets near future underground arena visual buffet.”

But at a competitive event, server stability and player experience takes precedence and it looks like the publisher faltered when setting up the event. 100 Thieves’ Ethan "Ethan" Arnold and Peter "Asuna" Mazuryk tweeted about the laggy experience. Despite the event taking place in a LAN setting, Riot Games is using virtual servers which is a strange decision.

Riot Games responds to server issues at the NA LCQ

Riot Games released an official statement revealing that due to the strict COVID protocols for in-person events, the publisher decided to use a remote server in case any players needed to be quarantined. The goal was for teams to continue to compete and not bring in a sub or be forced to forfeit. The publisher recognizes that “the virtual server is not the same as playing on LAN; however, we are diligently working on improving the remote server experience throughout the competition.”

While it was not the most ideal start to the event, 100 Thieves, Gen.G, XSET and Luminosity Gaming managed to complete their matches despite laggy servers. The event continues today with 100 Thieves and XSET facing off against each other and it remains to be seen if Riot Games improves the player server experience for the players. It is the final opportunity for eight North American teams participating in the event to qualify for Valorant Champions and such issues could ruin the competitive experience for the players.

Fans can catch up on the NA LCQ matches on the official Valorant YouTube and Twitch channels.