The Vietnamese Championship Series (VCS) will reportedly miss the 2021 World Championship. Vietnamese news website thethao.vn reported that the VCS cannot send its teams to Europe due to travel restrictions.
According to the report, Riot Games are expected to announce the news and the exact location of the World Championship on the same day. Whether the VCS will receive prize money without competing, as was the case in 2020, remains unknown.
As a result, the VCS will be missing Worlds for the second time in a row. Notably, the league did not operate in the 2021 summer split and considered sending spring finalists GAM Esports and Saigon Buffalo. Before Worlds moved to Europe, the teams filed visa applications to China but were unsuccessful.
The pandemic reached a critical point in Ho Chi Minh City, home of the VCS. Initially delaying the start of the summer split, it instead led to its cancellation as it worsened.
Lately, as Vietnam dealt with a surge in COVID-19 cases, Germany's Robert Koch Institut rated it as a high-risk area starting Aug. 15, 2021.