VALORANT team forfeit VCT match as player was busy playing Honkai Star Rail

A professional VALORANT player from the squad Ghost CommandoS reportedly forced his team to forfeit an official VCT match because he was too busy playing Honkai: Star Rail. 

Valorant team Ghost CommandoS forfeited their match against S2 Esports at the VCT Hong Kong Taiwan Spit 2 because one of the players was preoccupied with playing Honkai Star Rail. The player didn’t have the Riot’s Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) client installed when the game started, and as a result, his squad was reportedly forced to forfeit the match. At the time of the game, they were 0-5; but, had they won their remaining two games, there was a chance they might have made the playoffs.

Nonetheless, the forfeit effectively ended their chances of qualifying for the next round of the competition. After losing each of their best-of-three series, including a forfeit, the squad finished the Split group stage with a 0-7 record. S2 Esports, meanwhile, would triumph in the ensuing game as well, finishing with a 3-4 record and barely making it into the playoffs.

A distracted player cost the team a crucial match

Once the tweet went viral and the active Valorant community on Twitter started to discuss the issue, several doubts arose over the need to install a new client. This is primarily a result of the tournament switching between the three clients each week. Although the VCT client changed over the season in an effort to maintain it as near to the game’s live servers as possible, it appears that players were obliged to regularly reinstall it. 

Ghost Commandos seemed to have been unprepared for this transformation, and the new game’s increasing popularity made matters worse. Since the event on May 2, the impacted team has not released any information indicating which member was engaged in the incident. The incident, however, should serve as a warning to all teams to make sure that their players are completely concentrated and ready for their matches and to avoid distractions that may impair their performance.

On the other hand, the incident at the VCT demonstrates how engrossing Honkai: Star Rail is, capturing the attention of even top-tier esports players. With millions of players testing out the turn-based RPG game since its April 26 release, Honkai Star Rail has been a smashing hit. Before its release, the game attracted over 5 million pre-registrations, and within its first day, it had received 20 million downloads. The game boasts engrossing music and realistic graphics, and it also has a compelling plot that keeps gamers coming back for more. 

Header: Riot Games/Hoyoverse