Riot Games will now require all players, coaches, and staff who participate in its in-person tournaments in Brazil to have a coronavirus vaccine, according to a report by ge.globo.com.
Events across all of Riot’s titles, such as the Brazilian Championship of League of Legends, VALORANT Challengers Brazil, and Wild Rift‘s Wild Tour Brasil, will reportedly have the rule. For the BCLOL tournament, spectators must also show proof of inoculation before they can enter the event.
In order for teams to participate, their players, staff, and coaches must have a fully completed vaccination schedule, which requires either one or two vaccinations, depending on the manufacturer. For now, Riot has revealed its intention to continue in-person events with this new policy in place, but whether those events still take place in-person will depend on the state of the pandemic.
“Riot Games is monitoring the number of cases arising from the new variants, as well as from the celebrations of the end-of-year holidays, and will still be able to modify this decision until the beginning of the championships,” Riot told ge.globo.com.
This change in policy comes just a few days after a controversy involving former KRÜ Esports coach Rodrigo “Onur” Dalmagro, who recently was denied an opportunity with a new team due to his lack of vaccinations.
Onur left KRÜ Esports with intentions to start working with LOUD Esports but was deported back to Argentina for not being vaccinated when he tried to enter Brazil. Onur posted a TwitLonger about the incident, explaining the timeline of events that led to his deportation.
“When the team manager was informed about the travel restrictions, [Brazil] only required a PCR with less than 72 hours of validity,” Onur said, according to a machine translation. “On December 20, Brazil releases a new regulation that includes mandatory vaccination for non-resident foreigners in addition to the PCR. I didn’t know, and neither did they.”
Onur’s experience with traveling to Brazil seemingly didn’t change his mind much, either. He posted another TwitLonger about being a free agent and said he’s open to traveling to locations only if they have relaxed policies in regard to vaccinations.
Onur was also reportedly so against quarantining at VALORANT Champions in Berlin that security had to be put outside of his door to ensure that he was isolated. It’s unclear if Riot’s change in policy had anything to do with Onur’s behavior, but with the policy now reportedly in place, every participant will be required to vaccinate or choose not to attend.
