Battle to Ascend: VCT Pacific Ascension Group Stage Recap

The summit of tier 2 Valorant, VCT Ascension started a week ago across the regions. In the Pacific, ten teams across the region qualified through playoffs. The ten teams playing the VCT Pacific Ascension group stage are as follows:

• Group Alpha
  • NAOS (Philippines)
  • BOOM esports (Indonesia)
  • Fancy United esports (Vietnam)
  • XERXIA esports (Thailand)
  • ONE Team esports (Taiwan)
• Group Omega
  • BLEED (Singapore [MY/SG])
  • SCARZ (Japan)
  • Bonkers (Oceania)
  • Dplus Esports (Korea)
  • Orangutan (India [South Asia])

The two groups played in a single round robin best-of-three format. Top three teams from each group will qualify for the playoffs. Let’s see how the group stage went.

VCT Pacific Ascension Group Alpha recap:

Day 1:

The first day of Group Alpha featured XERXIA taking on One team. XERXIA was one of the strongest teams at the event. Starting on Ascent, XERXIA won the first half but One team came back to force overtime. XERXIA won the two rounds to secure the opponents pick. On Haven, One team outplayed XERXIA to force the third map. Bind saw XERXIA dominate the first half. Despite the One team’s strong fight back in the second, XERXIA won the game 2-1.

The second game featured Filipino NAOS taking on Fancy United. On Fracture, NAOS destroyed Fancy United’s defence to secure a strong six round lead in the first half. The 9-3 curse struck again when Fancy United flipped the script to win ten rounds in a row in the second half to secure NAOS’ map pick. NAOS once again secured a lead on Pearl and converted into a map victory to force a third map. NAOS repeated their Fracture run and secured Ascent to win the series 2-1.

Day 2:

Day 2 featured BOOM Esports taking on One team. One team secured a strong start on Split but BOOM came back to win the half 7-5. They capatalised on this momentum to secure the first map. ONE team once again secured a strong start on map two and this time converted it to a map victory. On the third map, One team completely shut down the BOOM offensive plays to secure the series 2-1.

In the second game, Fancy United obliterated XERXIA on both Fracture and Split. With a strong 13-7, 13-4 scoreline, Fancy United secured their first group stage win.

Day 3:

Fancy United was on the other side of the stomp on Day 3. BOOM esports recovered from the One team loss to secure a 13-3,13-10 victory over Fancy United.

Day 4:

The XERXIA - NAOS game was an important game. Starting on Bind, XERXIA’s offence gave NAOS a hard time. XERXIA secured five rounds in a row to start the first map. NAOS recovered to salvage the half. In the second half, NAOS overran XERXIA to win Bind 13-9. XERXIA once again secured a strong start but struggled to close the first half. NAOS secured six straight rounds in the second half. But XERXIA finally answered back to force a third map. Ascent was a brawl, both teams threw strong jabs at each other. The first half of the game ended in a tie. XERXIA defence came through in the second half and completely shutdown NAOS to secure a 13-8 win to secure the series.

Day 5:

The first game of day 5 was a do or die game for Fancy United. Despite a shaky start on Split, Fancy United secured a strong 8-4 half. They converted it to a 13-8 victory in the second. On Ascent, One team came back from a 2-6 deficit to equalise the half. The Fancy United attack got the better of One team as they secured the second map 13-11. With the win, Fancy United ended on a 2-2 record.

The second game saw NAOS taking on BOOM esports. BOOM started strong but NAOS came back to equalise the first half. The second half was equally contested but the NAOS offence won the brawl to secure a 1-0 lead in the series. The NAOS attack struggled on Pearl and BOOM secured a strong 8-4 lead in the first half. Despite their strong defence, NAOS failed to secure the comeback and lost the second map 10-13. On the final map, NAOS offence secured them a 8-4 lead and they converted it to a strong 13-10 victory.

Day 6:

The first game of the sixth day featured ONE team fighting for survival against NAOS. But NAOS got the better of them and secured a swift 2-0 to secure playoffs. One team was eliminated from the competition after the loss.

The winner of the final Group Alpha game decided the playoff qualifiers. Starting on Lotus, BOOM dominated XERXIA to secure a 1-0 lead. XERXIA answered back with a dominant Split to force a third map. BOOM’s Ascent defence came in clutch again, helping them secure a strong 9-3 half. BOOM converted the lead into a 13-8 map victory, securing playoffs.

With the Group Alpha games concluded, NAOS, BOOM and Fancy United become the three teams to secure playoffs.

VCT Pacific Ascension Group Omega Recap:

The Group Omega of VCT Pacific was much less intense compared to Group Alpha. Two teams BLEED and SCARZ had indomitable performances. SCARZ’s only loss came to BLEED where the second and third map went to overtime. BLEED’s only loss came to Dplus esports. Dplus esports lost to Bonkers and SCARZ and failed to qualify over Bonkers. Bonkers had an insane story and managed to qualify over Dplus Korea, a promotion contender. The South Asian (Indian) representatives Orangutan did not win a single game throughout the group stage. They won only two maps. SCARZ had the best performance throughout the stage, losing only two maps before qualifying.

With the conclusion, the three teams qualifying from Group Omega are BLEED, SCARZ and Bonkers.

The VCT Pacific Ascension playoffs kickoff 7th July. The top seeds from each group skip a stage. You can follow VCT Pacific Twitter for all the VCT Pacific Ascension updates.

Credits: VCT Pacific // Riot Games

You can also follow VCT Pacific Ascension on Strafe.