Riot Games and Valve pause their competitions in Europe amid Ukraine conflict

The world has been shaken in a significant way by the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which brought with it countless international reactions and sanctions against the European nation, in economic and political terms.

All this arises from the actions carried out by the Russian army, in which unfortunately hundreds of people have lost their lives trying to repel the invasion, while thousands of others are isolated and trying to leave Ukrainian territory.

Major esports tournaments in Europe are being affected

Due to the impact of the current situation, various sectors such as esports have recently been affected, and as is the case in other sports disciplines such as football, some regional tournaments have had to be suspended indefinitely.

This is the case for both the League of Legends Continental League (LCL) and the VALORANT Champions Tour EMEA organized by Riot Games, as well as the Dota Pro Circuit Spring Tour organized by EPICENTER and Valve.

Through various releases on their social media, both companies revealed these highly relevant competitions for Eastern Europe will be postponed for the time being. This while looking for a way to carry them out without damaging both the competitive integrity and that of the players.

On the Riot Games side, the resolution is more than understandable, given that many of the participating teams could be affected in the middle of regular-season games while seeking their qualification for the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational and the first VALORANT Masters of the year.

The company in charge of both titles hasn't yet revealed its plans for next week, although it's expected they will be announcing them soon so as not to affect the competitive calendar.

As for the Dota Pro Circuit, most of the players present in the rosters of the best teams in this region belong to the two involved nations, so it's not difficult to deduce the reason for the decision by the organizers. Also, since their open qualifiers were just about to start, there was a greater chance of preventing any kind of incident.

For now, we can only wait to see how this will play out and if the European competitions will be able to get back into action in time.

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Featured image courtesy of ESL.