Team Liquid’s Nivera will play from an isolated room in the team’s first match of the VALORANT Champions event since he tested positive for COVID-19 and the tournament’s schedule has been slightly adjusted to accommodate for the situation, Riot Games announced today.
VALORANT Champions, the final event of the VALORANT Champions Tour and the biggest VALORANT event of the year, finally starts tomorrow. The top 16 teams from around the world will compete for the title in Berlin and one team will go home as the inaugural VALORANT champion.
The teams are already in Berlin and have been in quarantine in an effort to avoid an outbreak of COVID-19, which could prevent and potentially postpone the event. But Team Liquid’s Nivera tested positive for COVID, meaning he can’t play with his team on stage. The good news is Riot prepared for this scenario and has an isolated room where Nivera can compete from without exposing others.
“Our policy states that in the event a player returns a positive result for COVID-19 but feels well enough to compete and chooses to play, the affected team and their opponent will play the scheduled match on a LAN network built in the quarantine facilities,” Riot said. “The player who tested positive will compete from an isolated room while their teammates and the opposing team will compete from two nearby practice rooms. The order of matches on a given day is subject to change.”
The event will continue as planned, but Team Liquid’s match against KRU Esports has been moved to the last slot on Thursday, Dec. 2 to account for the isolated play. The Sentinels vs. FURIA match will now take place at 11am CT on Dec. 2.
Liquid confirmed that Nivera feels fine and will compete with the team as planned, just not in the same room. If the team moves on to the playoffs, fans might get to see the full squad compete on the main stage.
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