VALORANT players speak out about poor VCT EMEA conditions

Several VALORANT players have shed light on the poor conditions during VCT EMEA after game days have been plagued by an influx of long technical pauses.

The most detailed statement was made by esports veteran Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev, who expressed his frustrations about poor hardware quality and staff responsiveness at the Riot.

Stage 1 of the VCT EMEA circuit has struggled with frequent tech pauses for multiple consecutive weeks, disrupting the flow of matches and causing strain on players as well as on-air talent.

The issues culminated last week when the Group Stage series between Team Liquid and Movistar KOI was paused for over 30 minutes while league officials had to move the ongoing Lotus game to a new server.

To address the severe problems with offline servers, the league then temporarily switched to online servers. This, however, only led to other tech issues while forcing players to compete at higher pings.

Yesterday, Riot’s Head of VALORANT Esports, EMEA, Daniel Ringland, posted an official apology explaining why the technical challenges have not been resolved yet: “Resolving this is a really complex challenge while we’re in the middle of the Regular Season, because the studio is being used almost everyday, giving us little time to take systems offline and investigate thoroughly.”

He added that Riot staff will conduct a thorough investigation between the league’s Regular Season and Playoffs, kicking off on May 8th.

Derke directly responded to Ringland’s post, claiming that Riot had dismissed these tech issues for years. In a statement on his personal account, the Team Vitality player shared further details regarding his frustrations. According to Derke, players have been raising concerns about PC optimisation and low monitor quality in EMEA since the beginning of VALORANT franchising in 2023.

“Were told to ‘be patient.’ But now it’s year three, and nothing seems to be improving,” explained the player. “The PCs aren’t optimised, 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.”

Derke also commented on Riot’s decision to remove the live audience from all Wednesday games: “I feel bad for rookies making their tier-one debut with no crowd […] And it’s worse for fans who travelled hoping to support their favourite players live.”

Following his post, other VALORANT players came out in support of Derke. Retired Sentinels player Tyson ‘Tenz’ Ngo shared that Riot’s dismissiveness in the face of player concerns was “one of the biggest contributing factors that led to [his] decision to hang up the mouse.”

Gentle Mates player Thomas ‘kAdavra’ Johner expressed similar dissatisfaction regarding VCT EMEA management and poor equipment choices.

Meanwhile, NAVI’s Kyrylo ‘ANGE1’ Karasov argued that the core problem lies in sharing the Riot Games arena and equipment with EMEA’s League of Legends circuit: “No time to change monitors between leagues, we have to play Wednesday-Thursday-Friday, which doesn’t help to gather a crowd.”

As VCT EMEA Stage 1 is approaching its Playoffs phase, Riot Games is forming a Player Council to better address feedback from athletes. Moreover, Ringland promised larger equipment overhauls and upgrades later in the year.

Former Liquid coach and VALORANT personality Connor ‘Sliggy’ Blomfield proposed a different solution during one of his recent VCT EMEA co-streams. With no crowd on Wednesdays and failing offline servers, the league could just commit to an online setting during the Group Stage, making the offline stage exclusive to the Playoffs.

Sliggy argued that this arrangement would allow players to compete in a stable environment while saving Riot the costs of maintaining the Riot Games Arena and offline servers during the Regular Season.