Risk of epilepsy due to VCT America’s production problems

Risk of epilepsy at the VCT Americas! VCT Americas experienced some pretty severe production problems and viewers were surprised by the onscreen lights flashing rapidly for several seconds. Production problems in esports are not uncommon and unfortunately unavoidable, no matter how well the organizer prepares for them.

Carrying out an hour-long broadcast is a massive undertaking that often requires a whole team and where unforeseen things can always happen. This also applies to the VCT Americas! The danger is particularly high in esports, because game crashes and bugs can interrupt the transmission at any time. However, it has not happened very often that a production error can harm viewers at home.

Production problems with KRÜ vs 100T

During the recent match between KRÜ and the 100 Thieves at VCT Americas Week 4, there were production problems on the second day, which can at best be described as annoying. There was a “No Signal” screen with rapidly flashing lights that lasted for several seconds. This technical problem even occurred several times during the match.

VCT Americas flash of lights on broadcast

Without having seen the video clip, it’s easy to get the impression that people on Twitch chat or on some of the game’s discussion forums are exaggerating about the nature of the technical issues with the live stream. For those who have seen it, however, the matter is clear, because the rapidly flashing lights and the message “No Signal” were extremely unexpected and disturbing, and in the worst case could have led to an epilepsy attack in some people.

Epilepsy is a condition in which some areas of the brain are overactive, which can then trigger an epileptic seizure. In some sufferers, only a few muscles twitch, in worse cases the whole body spasms and you become unconscious.

People who posted to the live match thread during these production issues had quite a bit to say about the severity of these issues. 

One Reddit user said:

“I will never complain about EMEA/Pacific production again. At least those other leagues aren’t actively trying to kill their audience.”

Nobody was seriously harmed

Streamer Tarik even had to shut down the VCT Americas stream altogether to spare his viewers’ eyes during his co-stream, but not before his chat had the same “MY EYES” spam seen on the main broadcast.

Fortunately, the problem was fixed after only a few incidents during the first games of the day. For most people in chat, the visual issue was mostly just annoying, but fortunately no one was seriously harmed as a result. And the production team is definitely better prepared for the next event now.