VALORANT casters Mitch “MitchMan” McBride and Tom “Tombizz’ Bissmire are set to miss their first big international VALORANT event. The duo revealed today, even before Riot Games’ official talent lineup announcement for VCT Masters Tokyo, that they have been let out of the upcoming tournament to detriment of other casters, and the news hasn’t been received well by fans.
“MitchMan and I have been informed we won’t be attending Japan as broadcast talent,” Tombizz said on Twitter. “Although saddened to miss our first Masters, it was bound to happen eventually.”
MitchMan later added they thought about traveling to Tokyo just as viewers, but they didn’t have the budget for it due to having to pay $10,000 each for their US visas for VALORANT Champions 2023 in Los Angeles later this year.
Even though Riot has taken out casters of the rotation from time to time, as happened with the popular casting duo of Sean Gares and Daniel “ddk” Kapadia in 2022, fans have not taken Tombizz and MitchMan’s announcement well.
“That’s wild, I’m so sorry to hear, it won’t be the same without you guys,” one fan said in reaction to the announcement. “WTF, Riot is messing up big time,” another fan said. You can find some more reactions below, from people that used images to voice their disappointment toward the decision.
With Tombizz and MitchMan officially out of the talent broadcast for VCT Masters Tokyo, fans have already started speculating which casting duo will fill their spot. Some are expecting Riot to maintain Lauren “Pansy” Scott & Michael “hypoc” Robins and Brennon “Bren” Hook & Josh “Sideshow” Wilkinson, and add VCT Pacific League casters Seth “Achilios” King and Clinton “Paperthin” Bader into the mix.
VCT Masters Tokyo will run from June 11 to 25 and will feature four teams from EMEA, three teams from the Americas and Pacific, and two Chinese teams.
