As announced by Riot Games, the charity tournament called Mid-Season Streamathon will be held from May 31 to June 1. However, it was unclear why the initial announcement featured Team Flash (VCS Spring 2020 Champion) and EVOS Esports (3rd place VCS Spring 2020) as the representatives from Vietnam, but not GAM Esports.
Until today, the announcement has quietly been updated to include Team Flash and GAM Esports as the representatives from Vietnam. There have been many rumors surrounding this situation, such as GAM Esports facing issues related to unpaid salaries for its team members, which led the team to decline participation in Riot Games’ international fundraising tournament. There are also rumors that the team is struggling with a personnel shortage, as coach Tinikun has recently left, and star mid-laner Dia1 may also be leaving soon.
However, since the two representatives from the opposing region are the Champion and Runner-Up, the organizers rejected allowing the top 3 team EVOS Esports to participate in the tournament, while GAM Esports reclaimed the spot from EVOS Esports. Alternatively, it could also be due to an error in the announcement regarding the participating teams, although this possibility is quite low, it is not impossible.
As for the representatives from the Pacific Championship Series (PCS), the two teams participating this time will be Talon Esports and Machi Esports. Similar to the representatives from VCS, these two teams also have very close scores of 2-3 and 3-2 (in the winner and loser brackets), ultimately Talon Esports made an outstanding comeback and won the PCS Spring 2020 championship. Therefore, these will be two worthy opponents for the Vietnamese representatives to test their skills before the major tournament like Worlds 2020.