EMEA coaches at VCT Masters Tokyo comment on lack of Champions qualification

Just about every team qualified for VCT Masters Tokyo has also qualified for VALORANT Champions 2023. The top three teams from Americas, Pacific, and EMEA will all head to LA. For EMEA, though, it isn't the top three from the league. It is the top three at VCT Masters Tokyo who will decide the region's Champions representatives.

During the pre-event press conference for VCT Masters Tokyo, Jacob "mini" Harris of FNATIC, Emil "eMIL" Sandgren of Team Liquid, and Erik "d00mbr0s" Sandgren of Natus Vincere answered a question from esports.gg. The three EMEA coaches gave their thoughts on not automatically qualifying for Champions.

Team Liquid, FNATIC, FUT Esports, and NAVI qualified for VCT Masters Tokyo during the EMEA league playoffs. The fourth slot was earned via FNATIC winning VCT LOCK//IN. Because of that, the teams will decide who goes to Champions based on how they perform in Tokyo.

FUT and NAVI will begin their tournament in the Group Stage, but there is a chance that all four EMEA teams end up in the Bracket Stage. If that happens, whoever is eliminated first will miss Champions and have to go through LCQ.

We asked EMEA coaches mini, eMIL, and d00mbr0s their thoughts, and here is what they had to say:

mini: "Right, my manager is here, so obviously I can't be too brutal. But what is the logic? We won the event, then four teams go, and we're not at Champions. To me, that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. We came top two, we won LOCK//IN, screwed ourselves by winning LOCK//IN. It doesn't really make much sense to me, in my opinion. With that being said, that's Mini outside the server. Mini inside the server is, 'Boys, we've got a trophy to win.'

"So, it doesn't affect us in the game, but outside the game, obviously logically, my problem-solving brain is like, 'That doesn't really make much sense.' We're kind of used to it at this point. It's been three years. We know decisions aren't always done in the way that we want them to be done. But it doesn't make any sense to me."

d00mbr0s: "I kind of want to segue on what he said. You're coming to this event, the bottom, the fourth team will go back and play LCQ. Pretty much instantly. You're playing against all of the other teams that just had a bunch of practice time. So, you're kind of disadvantaged in that, as well. I feel bad for the team that's going to be in fourth place for EMEA here."

eMIL: "I mean technically, and not saying you're going to lose, but you could win all of LOCK//IN, go through the whole league to the finals, and then go and play, come fourth, and have to do LCQ, as well. That's crazy. I'm just going to say. It is kind of weird, praying on one of us to have a bad run to actually qualify."

mini: "It's like we were praying for each other to have a good run at LOCK//IN and now we want each other to lose."

The need to qualify for Champions in a different way than the other leagues adds higher stakes to VCT Masters Tokyo. The EMEA coaches and players might not like it, but they're going to play their hearts out and deal with the circumstances.

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