According to multiple recently disclosed sources, after two announcements postponing the tournament indefinitely, it is highly likely that in the coming days, the VCS organizing committee will officially announce the cancellation of the VCS Summer 2021 tournament.
This is an inevitable consequence due to the limited time left until the start of the 2021 World Championship. Moreover, the domestic pandemic situation has not shown signs of easing. Therefore, there will be very few opportunities for VCS to organize the tournament again.
One of the reasons why VCS Summer cannot commence is that the organizing committee did not obtain the necessary permits to hold the tournament when the pandemic situation was not as severe as it is now. Thus, it is almost certain that VCS will not be able to organize, for three reasons:
1. The limited timeframe means there will not be enough time to finish the tournament before the 2021 World Championship occurs, even if all matches are played in Bo1 format (excluding knock-out).
2. The pandemic situation remains very tense, which will restrict organizing efforts.
3. There is no permit to hold the tournament.
Some information also suggests that if VCS Summer 2021 is not held, Riot Games will approve a proposal allowing the top two teams from the Spring Split, GAM Esports and Saigon Buffalo, to represent the region at the 2021 World Championship as two seeds. However, the likelihood of GAM and SGB participating in the World Championship is also low, due to similar restrictions as previous international tournaments, namely the limitations on entry and exit during this unpredictable pandemic.
Overall, VCS’s inability to hold the tournament up to now, and the potential cancellation of the summer tournament, is causing significant economic damage to all parties involved. One of the issues the community wants clarity on is what will happen to the prize pool, which is estimated to be around 1.2 billion VND, in the event of a cancellation?
If the organizing committee proceeds with distributing the prize money, the criteria for distribution will likely be based on the rankings of teams in the Spring Split, which is somewhat unfair to the teams that have invested heavily in preparation for the Summer Split. Not to mention that the organizing committee will also incur heavy losses, as the tournament not being held means that revenue and profits from promotional and sponsorship activities will be almost completely “cut off”.
On the other hand, if no prize money is distributed, the organizations will have to bear the loss. However, we will still need to wait for an official announcement to understand the new direction of the VCS organizing committee if this worst-case scenario actually occurs.