FUT player boycotts press conference after controversial call from Riot at Champions Shanghai

Day 6 of VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Champions Shanghai has been truly chaotic. With Team Vitality and 100 Thieves qualifying for playoffs, the true headline came from FUT Esports after a controversial call from Riot following tech issues during their match against 100T sparked intense reactions from FUT's players.

This article will continue to be updated as the story develops.

VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Champions Shanghai

100 Thieves

2

X

0

FUT Esports

Group A - Winners Match, Best of 3 - September 30, 2026 - 12:55PM

13

Split

5

13

Lotus

10

100 Thieves

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Timotino

1.25

267

35/27/14

+8

1.30

80.8%

160.5

21%

67%

10

5

bang

1.13

211

29/24/21

+5

1.21

76.5%

138.5

31%

40%

4

6

Asuna

1.10

204

28/24/21

+4

1.17

83.6%

128.3

21%

100%

4

0

vora

1.03

170

28/23/13

+5

1.22

86.4%

108.7

22%

100%

3

0

Cryocells

0.96

191

30/25/5

+5

1.20

73.7%

128.4

18%

67%

6

3

FUT Esports

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

yetujey

0.97

209

30/29/4

+1

1.03

65.9%

125.0

23%

50%

2

2

KROSTALY

0.94

196

28/30/10

-2

0.93

69.3%

122.6

17%

38%

3

5

xeus

0.81

184

25/32/8

-7

0.78

69.7%

129.3

38%

33%

4

8

sociablEE

0.64

138

21/29/9

-8

0.72

48.3%

95.3

32%

13%

1

7

s0pp

0.58

136

19/30/6

-11

0.63

63.2%

97.7

35%

44%

4

5

A match ruined by gear issues?

The match between FUT and 100T was full of tech issues, with the first, and perhaps most important one of them all, taking place after just one round of play. During Round 2, Jordan "vora" Pulwer found himself in a 1v3 situation and was about to be executed by Yusuf "xeus" Doğan Gözgen when the FUT player's mouse disconnected and, as a result, the his gun stopped shooting. Vora then went on to win the 1v3 and claim the round for his team.

This issue completely broke the round, as FUT would almost certainly have won it if not for the mouse issue. The most shocking part, though, was that Riot made the call not to roll back the round.

After this incident, 100T managed to get control of the match and take home the map in convincing fashion with a 13-5 final score. Though 100 Thieves did end up comfortably winning the map, it's hard to say exactly how things would have gone down had FUT not lost such a pivotal early round due to gear issues.

That, however, wasn't all, as other members of the team also experienced different issues. As Okan "KROSTALY" Alaçam explained on X, FUT members also faced audio issues, and Riot’s proposed fix was to unplug and replug the audio cable. Coach Berke "Vlad" Kantürk also mentioned an issue with the lights which, in the players' opinion, were disturbing because of the reflection, and even though they complained, nothing was done in order to fix the problem.

FUT answer with complaints and protests

It didn’t take long for FUT players to start complaining about the match. Almost every member posted a quick reaction on socials as Riot’s management of the tournament's persisting gear issues continue to be largely criticized.

Efe "s0pp" Tur shared a screenshot of him blocking Leo Faria, Riot’s Global Head of VALORANT Esports. Xeus highlighted mouse, PC, and sound issues. Volkan "sociablEE" Yönal also complained that the result of Map 1 against 100 Thieves was completely invalidated by the early issues.

However, the strongest reaction was that of Eray "yetujey" Budak, as he announced early into the post-match press conference that he would not be taking part in answering questions:

I don't want to be disrespectful to you guys (the press), but I don't care about Riot, so I will not join this.

Xeus instead opened up about the issues he faced, stating the following:

I had a Spectre, I had 30 bullets, that round was 100% ours but there was no rollback… Had I been able to shoot that, momentum would have carried us into a 3-0 and would have probably put us in a really good position in terms of momentum. But my gun didn’t shoot, and the round wasn’t rolled back.

This is becoming the main issue of the tournament. After the initial complaints from Kim "Francis" Mu-bin, Nikita "trexx" Cherednichenko, and Burak "LêwN" Alkan, tech issues have continued to affect the event.

As the tournament moves into its later stages, these issues are becoming harder to overlook. Champions is the biggest event of the VALORANT calendar, and teams spend an entire year preparing for the chance to compete on this stage. Naturally, technical problems should not be allowed to undermine that preparation or affect the tournament's biggest moments.

For the time being, Riot are yet to comment on the situation.

For all things VCT-related, make sure to stay tuned to THESPIKE.GG as we continue to update you with the freshest game and esports news.

Featured Image Credit: Yicun Liu/Riot Games