Update, Sept. 30, 9:28 PM CEST: Riot Games has confirmed that all Worlds 2022 players have tested negative in additional testing rounds. “Last night we conducted an additional round of COVID testing for all teams and all players have been cleared to compete on stage. We will continue to regularly test and monitor all participants to ensure the health and safety of players and staff at Worlds 2022.”
The original article can be found below.
The COVID-19 saga of the 2022 League of Legends World Championship gets another chapter, albeit a positive one. Due to an error, many players were given false positives for their coronavirus rapid test results prior to Day 1 of the event. PCR tests, which are more accurate but take longer to reach a conclusion, came back negative for many players today. Many player can now play the Play-In Stage from the studio.
On Twitter, MAD Lions players and staff shared the news that they would no longer be isolated. “Seems like we were negative after all so we’ll be playing today [on] stage,” jungler Javier “Elyoya” Prades said. When fans asked what had happened, the Spaniard said that all competitors who had tested after a certain hour had gotten positive results. Fnatic team director Javier “Dardo” Zafra confirmed that there were “false positive cases” and that his team would be united on stage again as well.
Evil Geniuses support Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme also joins his teammates on the Worlds stage today.
Isolated without a PC
Although the false positives have been corrected, their impact still affects the teams. On the first day, many teams had to play from separate locations. The players who tested negative could play on stage, while the others had to play from a special booth elsewhere. Furthermore, Elyoya commented that he did not have access to a PC for the entire day, costing him precious practice time.
The scope of the error is not yet known. Presumably, many of the other players who were absent from the first day of Worlds were subject to the same error as the others, but no confirmation has been given yet.
The Worlds 2022 Play-In Stage continues today at 10 PM CEST. For the full schedule, click here. All games are broadcast on the official LoL Esports site.
