The VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) EMEA has officially postponed the matches on Friday, April 25, following technical issues that impacted the matches on Day 3 of Week 5.
Image Credit: Riot Games
VCT EMEA under fire due to ongoing issues
Technical issues emerged during the first match of the day between Team Liquid (TL) and Karmine Corp (KC). Despite TL getting the advantage on the first map, continuous tech pauses forced Riot Games to stop the competition as the breaks went over three hours.
Several rounds were rolled back during the series and the frustration was visible on the players who were inevitably influenced by the situation. In the end, Riot issues an apology and postponed the day’s matches until further notice. Riot has also announced a full refund for all the ticket holders who attended the event on April 25th.
The other canceled match was the series between Fnatic and Team Heretics. It is unclear whether the game will reset or continue from where it left off with Team Liquid leading 1-0.
— VALORANT Esports EMEA (@valesports_emea) April 25, 2025
Pros fight back on socials
The persistent issues in the European VALORANT league has blown up among professionals, with several taking jabs at Riot, including the likes of Team Vitality‘s Derke as well as streamer TenZ.
Prior to the match day, Derke published a long post on X, stating that players have had issues over the past few years and little was done to fix them. Among the major challenges, the VALORANT player complained about the hardware issues, such as unoptimized PCs and tech pauses due to the game stuttering.
“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. It’s honestly shocking to see every other region with superior PCs and monitors, while in EMEA we’re stuck with setups from League of Legends,” he said in the tweet.
League of Legends is known for being less burdensome compared to VALORANT when it comes to hardware. Moreover, Derke complained about the fact that Riot didn’t communicate the move to online matches beforehand, leaving both players and fans surprised in playing without a crowd. “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,” he added.
TenZ was another one who voiced his concerns to the public, stating that one of the reasons why he stopped playing professionally was due to the continuous tech pauses: “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.”
TenZ also added that the issues have been going ever since the VALORANT circuit was created. “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,” he added.