Riot Games has informed the American VALORANT Players Association that Deadlock will actually be disabled for the VCT Last Chance Qualifier events, after the association told players earlier today the LCQ will be played on Patch 7.00.
The association added Riot will keep Deadlock enabled for the upcoming Game Changers II series, but made no mention of Deadlock’s availability for Champions 2023. Even with the LCQ teams playing with Deadlock disabled, there’s no telling whether or not Riot will eventually activate her for Champions in August.
The wording of the statement from the Association implies all the teams competing at LCQ will still play on Patch 7.00, but just with Deadlock disabled. This means players will likely play LCQ on the latest patch will all the latest agent fixes, including improved Suppression from KAY/O alongside other minor changes.
Read more: VALORANT Episode Seven, Act One Patch 7.00 notes
Still, for most of the players competing in the LCQ that haven’t competed since the playoffs of their VCT international leagues, there will still be numerous changes to navigate given that many recently only on Patch 6.08.
In particular, VALORANT Patch 6.11 introduced meta-altering weapon and agent changes: Phantom and Vandal ammo reductions, Viper Fuel regeneration nerfs, slight Chamber buffs, and the significant updates to Pearl. Two popular pistol selections in the Shorty and the Frenzy also received some major nerfs.
VCT Last Chance Qualifiers will kick off in America and Pacific on July 15. The EMEA VCT LCQ starts on July 19, with the teams in that region fighting for two Champions spots instead of one thanks to Fnatic’s victory at Masters Tokyo.
VALORANT Champions 2023 will then begin on Sunday, Aug. 6.
