Recently, Daily E-Sports Korea – the leading esports media channel in the land of kimchi, unexpectedly reported that the VCS Summer 2021 tournament is almost certainly going to be canceled. Notably, in addition to the information we already have, Daily E-Sports also revealed a shocking detail related to the real reason behind the inability to organize the Summer tournament of League of Legends Vietnam, which is directly related to the publisher Garena.
“According to our insider sources from a VCS leader, the VCS Summer 2021 tournament – which has been delayed for various reasons, will officially be canceled. However, the League of Legends Vietnam team will still look for a way to select 2 representatives to participate in the 2021 World Championship.”
There are 4 reasons causing the cancellation of VCS Summer 2021. First, it is very difficult to keep up with the schedule of other tournaments, even if VCS, which has been postponed for a long time, starts competing in a Bo1 format from this point on. Second, due to the complicated situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam. Third, they could not obtain a permit to organize the online competition. And fourth, the contract issue between the publisher of League of Legends Vietnam Garena and Riot Games has not yet been resolved.
Details about the contract have not been disclosed, but the contract related to Garena and Riot Games’ tournament will expire at the end of this summer. If the two companies do not renew the contract, Riot Games will directly operate from VCS Spring 2022 to be held next year.”
According to information from Daily E-Sports, one of the main reasons causing the cancellation of VCS Summer 2021 is that Garena could not find common ground with Riot Games regarding the extension of the tournament operation contract.
So the question arises: does the failure to extend the contract lead Garena to show a “lack of commitment” in seeking permission to organize the tournament, during a time when the pandemic had not yet surged in mid-June to early July?
According to our internal sources, the fact that VCS Summer 2021 has not been licensed is accurate, but the application for an organizational permit should have been submitted at least a few weeks before the tournament started. Meanwhile, after several delays due to the pandemic, the information about the lack of a tournament organization permit was only revealed later.
At the end of the VCS Spring 2021 tournament, the conditions were fully sufficient for VCS Summer to be allowed to organize, at least in an online competition format, but everything did not go as planned, leading to the tournament being virtually at an end at this point.
Daily E-Sports also added that the parties involved will still strive to find a way to send 2 VCS representatives to the World Championship. There are 2 options being calculated to determine the 2 representatives from the Vietnam region. One is to select the top 2 teams from VCS Spring: GAM Esports and Saigon Buffalo. The second option is to organize a regional qualifier, including the top 4 teams from VCS Spring 2021, competing in a knockout format to select the 2 winning teams to represent VCS at the World Championship.
Summary video of the article: