Riot Games changed the regional allocation of teams in the Asia-Pacific: Last Chance Qualifier due to “logistical” and “integrity” reasons, the organization announced today. The new allocations will see South Korea and Japan receive an extra slot, giving them a total of three each, as China will no longer participate in the tournament. ZETA DIVISION, one of Japan’s Masters Berlin representatives, have also pulled out of the APAC LCQ, citing the desire to make changes for the VALORANT Champions Tour 2022 season.
“The team allocation of the VCT APAC LCQ will be updated due to logistical issues that have the potential to impact the overall competitive integrity of the tournament,” Riot Games said in the statement.
The organization stated it they will confirm the three new teams to participate in the tournament in the coming days. Based off of circuit points, the teams representing Japan should include REJECT, NORTHEPTION and FENNEL. For Korea, the new team joining NUTURN Gaming and F4Q should be DWG KIA.
The 10-team VCT Champions qualifier tournament starts on Oct. 11 and ends with the grand final on Oct. 17, where the winning team will qualify for the year-end event.
ZETA DIVISION pull out of APAC LCQ
The Japanese organization announced today that they will rebuild ahead of the 2022 season after seeing the level of competition at Masters Berlin, according to a machine translation. In the statement, ZETA DIVISION said that they would rather spend this time reevaluating and strengthening the team and their staff than competing in the APAC LCQ.
“We decided to rebuild the team that we had been considering in advance, including the players, coaches, and management team. And we will prepare for the long-term success in the VALORANT scene until the start of the 2022 season,” the statement said.
The Champions qualifying event will now feature a new South Korean team and two new Japanese teams, along with the original three teams from Southeast Asia and one from South Asia. The format of the tournament remains unchanged as a 10-team double-elimination event with the higher seeds allocated by circuit points.
