VCT Pacific Kickoff Faced Delays Adding Up To Five Hours

Fans worldwide were eager to watch yay make his debut in the Asia Pacific region. However, two waves of technical issues hit the broadcast, delaying the day for over five hours.

17 February was meant to be a happy day for Asia Pacific fans, as it marked the beginning of the VCT Pacific Kickoff tournament. The first match featured yay and his new squad, BLEED, who would be facing T1. Thousands of North American fans stayed up to watch El Diablo play the match but were greeted with massive delays.

BLEED and T1 walked out on stage as scheduled, already picking the maps and agents. The broadcast was put on hold before jumping into the first map due to unspecified technical issues. The casters did an excellent job covering up and attempting to entertain the audience, but little did we know the game would be paused for three entire hours.

After an unacceptably long wait, the match was finally set to begin. However, due to the approximate twelve-hour difference, the match resumed around 3 AM in North American time, so most of yay’s local fans have already tuned out of the stream to sleep. 

The first map between the two APAC teams turned out to be very competitive, with the game going into overtime after a 12-12 score. Before getting into overtime in the intense map, T1 player Rossy was seen calling standby staff members and pointing at his PC. 

Alas, more technical issues turned up, and the match was paused again in the middle of the intermission for overtime. This time, the delay lasted two hours. In total, there were five hours of waiting and fifty minutes of actual gameplay. 

Understandably, most fans, especially those in the venue, were furious. Imagine living in North America and sleeping before the BLEED vs T1 match started. After a seven-hour rest, you wake up, and the first map of the series is still not over.

With all of this going on, keep in mind that three Best-of-3 matches were scheduled for the day. Six hours into the broadcast, the first map of the first series had not yet been completed. 

During the technical break, the official Valorant Pacific Twitter account announced that the third series of the day between ZETA DIVISION and Global Esports had to be rescheduled, and fans in attendance would have their tickets fully refunded.

After the stream was resumed, the day went smoothly, with T1 defeating BLEED 2-0 and Gen.G taking the series 2-1 against Rex Regum Qeon.

The funny thing is that the tournament organizers of VCT Pacific announced in a press conference that they would reduce the downtime between maps, making wait times shorter. What happened on the first day of the broadcast was the total opposite, as fans waited five hours to watch fifty minutes of gameplay.

Members of the community are speculating that the Valorant Pacific organizers could have been understaffed, recalling that Riot Games laid off 500+ employees earlier this year.

Header: Valorant