One of the teams that originally secured their place at VCT Reykjavik will now have to miss the tournament as the geopolitical situation ruined it for them.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues sending ripples all over the world and esports are not immune to its effects. As a direct result of the unprovoked attack, FunPlus Phoenix will miss VCT Masters in Reykjavik, despite the team previously securing a spot at the Valorant tournament.
This was announced by the official VCT EMEA Twitter account and the reason was left somewhat dubious but the surrounding factors were made clear. There were already travel restrictions in place due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the additional ones that came with the war appear to have been the straw that broke the camel's back.
Namely, FPX's roster in Valorant has one Ukrainian and two Russian players which is probably where the issue is coming from but Riot didn't explicitly confirm it. They noted both the organisers and the team tried to find a solution that would allow the team to participate but it was not meant to be in the end.
Riot also stated the lack of an appearance will not be through to any fault of FPX and they were eventually victims of the circumstance.
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In order to fill the third EMEA spot, Riot invited Team Liquid to represent the region as they suddenly found themselves eligible to participate in VCT Masters Reykjavik.
