The Valorant Champions Tour was briefly paused in Europe due to the Ukraine war, but now it continues – but not for all teams.
For a long time, fans of the Valorant scene did not know whether play would take place this past weekend at the Challengers tournament in the EMEA region, of which Europe is a part. As a consequence of the conflict in Ukraine, the tournament was paused for the time being.
In the end, the tournament was only played on a limited basis. Only three of the six scheduled matches took place: BBL Esports against SuperMassive Blaze, G2 Esports against Acend and LDN UTD against Team Liquid.
Praise for Team Liquid, G2 concedes defeat
The selection of Dutch eSports organisation Team Liquid secured an unchallenged 2-0 victory. “Really good performance from us today,” tweeted Liquid’s captain Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen after the match. “Let’s keep this momentum going for the upcoming games.”
G2 Esports, on the other hand, were less successful. The team of Russian coach Daniil “pipsoN” Meshcheryakov suffered a narrow 1-2 defeat in their duel with world champions Acend. In the last match of the day, BBL won 2:0 against SMB
Matches with Russian participation postponed
That G2 played was a bit of a surprise, as it was mainly matches involving Russian teams or players that were postponed. Nevertheless, the organisation was allowed to compete in Berlin this weekend.
Affected by the recent match postponements were the Russian team Gambit Esports, but also the teams of Fnatic and Guild Esports had to sit out. Both teams have a player from Russia in their squad. The professionals from Natus Vincere were also not in action: The team of the Ukrainian eSports organisation consists of professionals from Russia and Belarus.
