VCT EMEA schedule disrupted because of technical issues: Derke's tweet, TenZ's response, and more

After the Team Liquid vs Karmine Corps VCT EMEA fixture today, April 25, 2025, ran into myriad technical issues, leaving the match unplayable, Riot Games finally put an end to the broadcast. They issued a formal apology via the Valorant Esports EMEA X handle, which said the league "will revise the schedule in the coming days." The much-anticipated Fnatic vs Team Heretics game was also indefinitely postponed.

Earlier on the same day, Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev reported ongoing issues with the VCT EMEA circuit in a long X post. Team Vitality's primary Duelist said he was "really disappointed about the issues," which ranged from problems with hardware and monitor quality to audience management.

NAVI's in-game leader, Kyrylo "ANGE1" Karasov, and Tyson "TenZ" Ngo were among the several notable respondents to the X post, which has 2 M+ views at the time of writing.

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Derke alleges Riot Games is ignorant of hardware issues reported by VCT EMEA players for years

Derke began by stating that the issues he was talking about had been "ongoing since the beginning of franchising." He suggested that the gears used for LAN matches at the Riot Games Arena, Berlin, "could be a lot better."

Specifically, Sirmitev said that the monitors were not up to the mark and the PCs were not optimized. Despite players providing the organizers with feedback "for ages," the setup does not meet expectations, according to reports. Derke also said that the recurrent "tech pauses" were caused by the constant stuttering.

Derke went on to compare the state of affairs in VCT EMEA with other regions:

"It’s honestly shocking to see every other region with superior PCs and monitors, while in EMEA we’re stuck with setups from League of Legends."

He also alleged that the official response to players' reports about performance issues was: "But league of legends doesn't have this problem."

Responding to this aspect of Derke's post, u/POOYAMON on the ValorantCompetitive subreddit said:

"FYI the LEC is also the worst region in terms of production in League. The same type of posts you see on this sub are posted on the League subreddit and it makes sense because it's the same arena ran by the same people. So this "works fine for League" thing is complete BS maybe it's not as bad but it's still awful."

Hoc Wah "Fayde" Chong, the head coach for Wolves Esports in VCT China, quoted Derke's X post, saying that the organizers in his region were much better and "constantly upgrades the venue and PCs." He said that playing with tech pauses was "horrendous."

Derke then spoke about issues with the live audience in VCT EMEA. Apparently, the removal of the crowd from Wednesday games was not even notified to the teams beforehand. He said he felt bad for rookies who made their Tier 1 debut with no crowd, as "it takes away a huge part of the experience."

ANGE1 responded to this aspect of the missing crowd, which he stated was connected to VCT EMEA sharing the Riot Games Arena in Berlin with the LEC:

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TenZ, kamyk, and ZE1SH among respondents to Derke's allegations against VCT EMEA

TenZ quoted Derke's tweet to share his two cents on the issue:

TenZ said that the persistent issues in the VCT circuit and Riot's alleged indifference towards them were among the "biggest contributing factors that led to my decision to hang up the mouse."

Members of the r/ValorantCompetitive subreddit found TenZ's comment to be "scathing," while others humorously suggested that if Leo Faria — Global Head of Valorant Esports — saw the post, he would "crash out."

Gentle M8's Maks "kamyk" Rychlewski agreed with Derke, while Karmine Corps' coach, Ahmed "ZE1SH" Sheikh, highlighted another aspect of Valorant Esports that concerned him. He expressed concern for new entrants to the Tier 1 scene and how they only got to play a few matches before their fate in the ecosystem would be decided.

ZE1SH critiqued the format, which, according to him, was too fast-paced for teams to "develop players or create a team culture."

All in all, these are some of the concerns players and coaches from the VCT EMEA circuit shared in the context of Derke's post. Riot Games is reportedly forming a Player Council, which is meant to provide pro players a forum to bring up issues with the Valorant Esports scene directly with Riot officials.

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When will the VCT EMEA broadcast return?

The VCT EMEA broadcast, which was supposed to host the last matches of the group stage — Team Liquid vs Karmine Corps and Fnatic vs Team Heretics — on April 25, before moving on to the Playoffs stage, has been indefinitely postponed.

Riot Games will share a revised schedule for the final group stage games and the playoffs as the Riot Games Arena in Berlin gets a technical rework.