FPX and XSET replay final round following Killjoy Turret Bug

We are more than halfway through VCT 2022 - Champions Istanbul such that only four teams remain in the event following the conclusion of today’s matchups. Apart from the ailments that several teams encountered in the first few days in Istanbul, the event has produced unmatched entertainment for both in-person and online audience with each matchup adding a unique twist to a constantly developing narrative.

Today, however, a peculiarity occurred in the matchup between XSET and FunPlus Phoenix. XSET had a good start to the series taking Pearl on a final score of 13-11, but FPX levelled it up soon after on Bind taking it 13-10. In the final map, XSET had the early lead with the scoreboard reading 7-5 by halftime, but FPX retaliated quickly and executed a successful comeback to win the matchup.

FPX’s social had tweeted regarding their win, followed by individual messages from the roster. Just when everyone was under the impression that XSET had been eliminated, a report began to spread surrounding the possibility of replaying the final round.

As ominous and speculative as the report initially sounded, it gained credibility when players were spotted returning to the Stage and the Official VCT account provided a viable reason behind this unexpected decision. Apparently, a Killjoy bug had caused a turret to fire in the wrong direction, which consequently resulted in misinformation being relayed to the player and had allegedly impacted the result of the round.

Here is the clip that surfaced shortly after the rumors had gained traction and alerted the entire Valorant twitter about a potential replay of the final round.

When players settled in and started the round, XSET was able to take the final round this time around and forced Overtime. Neither of the first two Overtimes produced an outcome, but the EMEA team eliminated the NA team for the second time courtesy of Pontus "Zyppan" Eek’s crucial two kills in the end.

After the match finally came to an end, the local time was 2:28 AM, more than 5 hours since its start on 9 PM local time. Understandably, the FPX players weren’t happy with Riot’s decision to replay and expressed their views accordingly through tweets with one player being upset at XSET unprofessionalism highlighting today’s incident as well as the tech pause comment made by them against OpTic yesterday.