The past year of 2021 was incredibly challenging for Vietnamese Esports in general and the Vietnamese League of Legends community in particular due to the pandemic. Firstly, the champion of VCS Spring 2021, GAM Esports, was unable to participate in MSI 2021. Furthermore, the Summer Split was not held, causing many teams to struggle, and VCS continued to miss out on Worlds 2021. By the end of the year, the VCS Winter 2021 was held in a rush, forcing teams and players to compete continuously for over a month.
However, VCS Winter 2021 eventually concluded with CERBERUS Esports as the champion. It can be said that the pandemic significantly affected VCS teams. Missing Worlds for the second consecutive year raised concerns about Riot considering the performance when determining the number of slots for VCS in the highest League of Legends tournament.
Recently, in his first stream of the year, VCS commentator Hoàng Luân shared his insights on VCS’s chances of attending Worlds 2022. Specifically, he stated that VCS currently has only about a 30% chance of qualifying for the highest League of Legends tournament in 2022. Commentator Hoàng Luân also mentioned that he himself did not believe VCS would attend the previous Worlds, with his prediction then being just 0%.
However, Hoàng Luân himself admitted that a 30% chance is already higher than his prediction for the 2021 season. Additionally, he revealed on his stream that Riot had made efforts to organize the tournament in China. Yet, at the last minute, they had to “turn back” due to Covid-19.
Currently, the pandemic still persists in Vietnam and it will surely affect Vietnamese Esports as well as VCS. However, fans still have the right to hope that Vietnam will once again step onto the world stage, and talented players will have many opportunities to showcase themselves in major international tournaments (MSI, Worlds) this season.