Wireless gaming mice offer an excellent experience that keeps improving with technological iterations. In fact, their performance is so good that I would never choose a wired model unless chasing extreme cost-effectiveness. However, at the VALORANT Champions tournament in Shanghai, wired mice turned out to be the optimal choice—the custom event desks on site appeared to interfere with wireless signals.
The official VALORANT Esports X account recently stated, "Recurring mouse signal interference issues have triggered multiple technical pauses, disrupting the flow of our most important tournament of the year." Officials will require all players to switch to wired mice until the problem is resolved.
During the match between FUT Esports and 100 Thieves, player xeus experienced a mouse malfunction that prevented him from firing. Xeus's team, FUT, ultimately lost to 100 Thieves with a score of 0-2.
Riot officials stated: "Post-match evaluation determined that a round rewind should have been allowed for this game. We take full responsibility for this error." Riot also added: "After considering all feasible options, we decided to uphold the original match result. Any other solution would overturn the victory of a team that competed under equal conditions and bears no responsibility for this malfunction."
Riot customized metal desks specifically for this event, and officials believe the material choice is likely the root cause of the signal interference. For most players, switching their wireless mouse to wired mode solves the problem, but mice without USB-C ports (such as the new SteelSeries Rival Pro) face significant issues.
In such cases, pro players must completely swap out their mice, meaning they need to readjust to a new shape, weight, and feel. At the highest level of competitive play, this can create a slight disadvantage.
But even if players stick with their original mice, plugging in a cable to connect the device brings its own minor hassle—increased drag resistance when moving the mouse. This likely means many competitors will have to slightly adjust their muscle memory during the tournament, at least until the issue is resolved.
There's a reason wireless mice are so popular among pro players: they offer freedom of movement without cable drag restricting arm motions, and today's polling rates are high enough that wireless response times rival wired ones. No matter how quickly this issue gets fixed, it's a significant disruption for pros, who might now start carrying a spare USB cable just in case.