Cloud9 White forfeited in their VALORANT Game Changers Open Qualifier after arriving late to the tournament. Their excuse was technical issues, which allowed them a twenty-minute “tech pause”. Cloud9 White used their entire tech pause, but were still two minutes over. Team Captain Melanie “meL” Capone blamed “issues with [the] tourney client”. Nerd Street, the host of the match, ruled that Cloud9 would be disqualified. The decision has dropped Cloud9 White into the lower bracket.
[Related: VALORANT Oceania Championships 2022 – Where to Watch and Who’s Competing ]
VALORANT clarified after the backlash that they received no notification Cloud9 White would be arriving late. Additionally, Coach Reid “x0tek” Johnson joined, without his team, and did not provide an explanation for their absence.
Many fans might feel that the ruling was unfair, especially since a week before, FaZe Clan suffered a power outage that delayed a match by a whole hour-and-a-half. The judges allowed FaZe to continue playing, and they suffered no penalties. However, in this case, The ruling wasn’t made entirely due to Cloud9 White’s tech issues. Coach x0tek failed to give the Nerd Street an explanation until after the decision was made. X0tek agreed that “as the face of Game Changers NA, we should be held to the highest standard.”
https://twitter.com/x0tek/status/1543342855879630849?s=20&t=yB6khGwELTSh165P1EsEuQ
According to a timeline presented by the VALORANT esports staff to explain the ruling, the map vetoes were scheduled to begin at 12:45pm PT. X0tek didn’t make an appearance until 1:10pm, and the rest of the team didn’t join until 1:17pm. By that time, the forfeit had already been issued to Cloud9 at 1:15pm. To make Cloud9’s case even worse, the VALORANT judges stated that x0tek had only blamed issues with the tournament client after the forfeit.
Cloud9 White does have a reputation to defend. They were the champions of all three NA VCT Game Changers 2021 tournaments, and were victorious in this year’s Game Changers Series One. X0tek commented on twitter that, “never in 18 years of competing have I faced a FF loss being 120 seconds late, with both teams willing and online to play.”
Game Changers is a fairly new format designed by VALORANT to showcase female players. It runs parallel to the VCT tour, and includes several regions such as EMEA, APAC, LATAM and NA. 2021 was Game Changers’ first season, so precedent within the league has yet to be established. In the future, this incident will encourage more communication between coaches, teams and the league.
Despite the setback, Cloud9 White are still in the running. They haven’t been discouraged, as they’ve gone on to win two more games since the forfeit. Cloud9 White has qualified for the Game Changers Series Two Main Event, and are still a solid contender for this year’s champions. This forfeit will be nothing more than a smudge on their otherwise commendable resume.
You can find more pieces like “VALORANT Cloud9 White Forfeits in Qualifiers” and you can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Jesse!
