Winner of the Stage 1 Challengers, FPX gives way to Team Liquid for the Valorant Masters

VCT EMEA Stage 1 Challengers Champion, FunPlus Phoenix won’t go to the Reykjavik Masters after all, as we announced this morning in our summary of the competition on Valorant. A few minutes ago, the organizers announced yet another problem with travel restrictions for the international tournament on April 10 in Iceland. And this time it’s not specifically linked to visas and the pandemic, but to the war in ukraine.

Travel restrictions in Ukraine and Russia, as well as regulations related to Covid-19, continue to create problems for international travel. These last weeks, we tried to find solutions to ensure FPX’s place at the Masters. […] Unfortunately, FPX still haven’t managed to get a full roster for Reykjavik. Although we want to be as accommodating as possible, we need to ensure a minimum level of continuity in the rosters to be fair with other participants in the competition. […] In light of this development, Team Liquid is invited to participate in the Masters to represent the EMEA region.

Indeed, the FPX roster is made up of two Russian nationals, Shao and SUYGETSUbut also Ukrainian ANGEL1in-game leader, who obviously won’t be able to participate, leaving the roster unbalanced for the tournament.

However, the organization would like to congratulate FunPlus by making sure to find a way to reward with VCT points and part of the competition prize pool. We will therefore see the Belgians ScreaM and Nivera at the Masters, with the Dutch of Team Liquid.