On August 15, the Mongolian team The MongolZ released a statement expressing their dissatisfaction with being denied participation in the VCJ 2024 Split 3 tournament despite their victory in the Premier on the Japanese server.

Riot Games Japan's Requirements

In their statement, the team explained that after winning the Premier on the Japanese server twice, they were informed by a Riot Games Japan producer that, to participate in the tournament, three out of five players must have residency status in Japan. The MongolZ pointed out that there have been instances of Mongolian teams participating in Hong Kong/Taiwan Challenger events in the past and consider the current requirements to be unclear.

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The team also noted that they are eligible to participate in the Turkey Challenger but are unable to create an account in EMEA, which automatically switches them to APAC. This makes participation in the tournament physically impossible due to latency issues when connecting from Ulaanbaatar to servers in Turkey.

Discrepancy in Initial Promises

The MongolZ emphasized that they were previously promised they could participate on the default server when creating their team. In response, VALORANT Esports JAPAN manager Kohei Izumi stated that for VCJ participation, three out of five starting players need Japanese residency status, which contradicts the initial explanation.

The team is awaiting an official response from Riot Games and hopes this issue will not hinder their future activities.