VCT EMEA Resumes

After a short break and some much-needed technical testing, VCT EMEA Stage 1 is officially back on track.

The action picks up again this Friday, May 2, with matches kicking off at 17:00 CEST.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s happening:

• Team Liquid vs Karmine Corp resumes with Liquid holding a 1-0 lead

• Map veto process is getting a fresh start – Split is no longer in the pool

• No live audience this time around

• Fnatic vs Team Heretics follows right after to wrap up the Regular Season

What Went Down?

Over the last 48 hours, Riot’s team ran multiple in-depth tests to make sure the newly upgraded hardware is ready for competition. Here’s what they did:

• Checked all maps from Patch 10.07 (that’s the patch being used for Week 5)

• Ran full stress tests with pro players using their own gear

• Simulated real match conditions, including multiple rounds on different maps

• Dug deep into the game logs from the offline sessions

The good news? The new setup is performing much better than earlier in the stage. That said, there were a few minor hiccups in the early parts of maps, but nothing like the problems that paused things in the first place. Riot says they’re still looking into those small issues, but the green light’s been given to resume matches.

Why Restart the Map Veto?

With a big gap between the first and second maps, officials decided to redo the veto process to keep things fair. This means:

• The original Map 1 pick is skipped

• Split has been pulled from the map pool This change helps avoid giving any team a prep advantage based on what was previously picked and keeps the veto phase a bit more unpredictable – which is how it should be.