Nitr0 on NA VCT LCQ server issues: ‘We were having problems throwing our utility out’

The North American VCT Last Chance Qualifier was supposed to be a pure clash of some of the best teams in the continent that haven’t made it into VALORANT Champions yet—but 100 Thieves’ Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella isn’t fully satisifed.

The event has been tarnished with a plethora of server issues, a controversy surrounding COVID-19 tests, and overall playing conditions, which led Riot Games to postpone three matches yesterday in order to “implement solutions that will allow the LCQ to continue safely and without compromising competitive integrity.”

100 Thieves played two matches on Tuesday, the first day of the NA VCT LCQ, and beat Gen.G and XSET, respectively, in nitr0’s debut as the squad’s in-game leader following the benching of Josh “steel” Nissan after VCT Masters Three Berlin. There was a lot at stake already and the new captain had to deal with an unforeseen circumstance: the matches were played on online servers, even though the event is being held on LAN.

“I had no idea we were playing online servers until the match time,” nitr0 said in an interview with Esports.gg. “For me, it was a hit in the face. I was like ‘Wait, what?!’ There’s nothing we can really do about it, that’s more of a Riot thing, I don’t really even know what to say about it. I don’t even know how that’s a thing, to be honest.”

Playing on online servers is just not optimal for professional players, especially in a such decisive tournament. 100 Thieves was having even problems properly executing their game plans.

“The servers were lagging, we were having problems throwing our utility out. Sometimes we’d drone, and his [Hiko’s] screen would turn black and he would be glitched into a wall, then he’d rubber band out of it. Sometimes the server would freeze for 10 seconds and the clock would keep ticking. There was a bunch of technical problems because of the online servers. If it was on LAN, in theory, it’d be smooth sailing.”

If the servers are not good, it can really affect the competitive integrity of the game. So far, nitr0 remembered at least three rounds where the issues affected the outcome of these rounds in question. The 100 Thieves’ captain, though, doesn’t think the overall results would have changed.

Riot is yet to announce when the NA VCT LCQ will resume.