Members of powerhouse 100 Thieves tested positive for coronavirus, prompting them to miss the ongoing Valorant Champions 2022 tournament at the Volkswagen Arena in Istanbul.
Composed of team captain Brenden “stellar” McGrath, streamer Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk, Derrek “Derrek” Ha, William “Will” Cheng, and Sean “bang” Bezerra, the 100 Thieves squad were noticeably absent from the pre-event festivities because of the virus.
In a statement, team manager Daniel “DDK” Kapadia revealed that his wards contracted the deadly pulmonary disease.
“Four of our players and both coaches got Covid-19 four days ago,” he said without elaborating on the names of who contracted the virus.
“Everyone is recovering quickly. This is why we were absent from the press conference and some content,”
One of the top-tier tournaments in competitive Valorant, Valorant Champions is played offline with a total of 16 teams in 100 Thieves, OpTic Gaming, XSET, FunPlus Phoenix, Fnatic, LOUD, Leaviatan, DRX, ZETA DIVISION, Team Liquid, KRU Esports, FURIA Esports and Edward Gaming.
Unfortunately for Filipino Valorant fans, none of the local professional teams have managed to qualify for the tournament.
The Southeast Asian region, however, will be represented by Singapore’s Paper Rex, Thailand’s XERXIA, and Indonesia’s BOOM Esports.
On top of the yet-to-be-announced prize pool, teams are guaranteed to receive 50 percent of the net proceeds from the Champions 2022 Skin Collection which costs 6,265 Valorant points or P2,300.