VCT EMEA postpones fifth week matches after "significant and ongoing" tech issues

After barely managing to finish their first map, VCT EMEA official have decided to postpone Karmine Corp and Team Liquid's series during the fifth week of VCT 2025 - EMEA Stage 1, as well as the rest of the matches of the day due to ongoing technical issues happening to the players' PCs on stage. The league will be rescheduling the remaining games in the coming days, and will give an update on when a new match day is decided.

Ongoing issues ruin the competitive experience

Fans that attended the games live will be receiving a full refund. These technical issues have been plaguing the VCT EMEA circuit throughout the last few weeks, and have been thorn in the side of both players and fans. Not only has it negatively affected the viewing experience, but players have become increasingly disgruntled by the lack of solutions provided by Riot, even though they claim pros have been complaining about the performance of the PCs for years—but their voices have supposedly fallen on deaf ears.

These ongoing issues have been addressed by the head of VCT EMEA, but he was faced with ire from the community and from various players and coaches. Team Vitality's superstar duelist Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev raised his concerns in response, saying that the pro players have been complaining about these problems over the last few years, but "nothing seems to be improving."

Daniel Ringland, the VCT EMEA head, acknowledged Derke's complaints and said that he wants all player comments to be saved for the Player Council system that has yet to be opened for pros. The Player Council system would allow pros to communicate with Riot and elevate concerns at a quicker and more significant rate so they can be addressed in a timely manner.

TenZ speaks his mind

Even former pro player Tyson "TenZ" Ngo chimed in, stating that the constant issues on LAN was "one of the "biggest contributing factors that led to [his] decision to hang up the mouse," which could be the spark that sets the fire of change. If the most popular player in VALORANT history left because of pros weren't given the right conditions to succeed, due to tech issues or otherwise, Riot might feel incentivized to make some lasting changes before more players begin to leave or boycott the league.

One of the biggest issues that some pro players have discussed is the fact that the VCT share the studio with the European League of Legends competitive circuit, the LEC. Because of this, the computers are almost always unoptimized, settings are always changed, and the game is stuttering. Players are pleading for better equipment for on-stage play, since the whole point of LAN play is to maintain competitive integrity, but if the league must have teams compete online anyway due to tech issues, there's no point besides having fans in attendance.

If you want to stay updated on VCT EMEA and when the league will resume, stay tuned with THESPIKE.GG.