Talon Head Coach Frost on close opening series against Leviatán “If we are Pacific’s 4th seed… unlucky for the rest.”

Today’s VALORANT Champions 2024 series between VCT Pacific’s 4th seed Talon Esports and VCT Americas 1st seed Leviatán was a far closer affair than many expected. After all, until extremely recently, Talon was sitting comfortably around the middle to lower tiers of the Pacific league, home to many more notable heavy hitters such as recent VCT Masters Shanghai winner Gen.G and VCT Champions LA grand finalist Paper Rex.

Despite Leviatán closing out the series in 2-0 fashion, Talon was actually ahead for parts of the series, and at several junctures were in a position to cause the biggest upset VALORANT Champions Seoul 2024 would have seen in the 3 days since it began. Even in the aftermath, as the dust continues to settle, I believe I may have misjudged Talon, as have many others. They may just be the dark horse candidate to watch out for at this VALORANT Champions 2024.

“If you saw today, if a few rounds go differently, we are up 2-0 and all you guys would be like ‘what the heck is this?’ And then you’ll see Pacific is actually nothing to mess with at the moment.” - Hector "FrosT" Rosario, Talon Head Coach.

Talon Bares Claws: Closer Series than Expected

Most viewers tuning into this particular series would have expected an absolute steamroll from the side of Leviatán. The international roster representing VCT Americas has been an absolute powerhouse in their domestic region and in terms of firepower, the weight was very much in their favor - supposedly.

However, as the series played out, Talon’s head coach Hector "FrosT" Rosario displayed no surprise at the close scorelines. He revealed after the game that he had in fact expected Talon to win 2-0.

“The series didn’t go exactly how I thought it would. But in terms of everyone thinking we had a great performance, I pretty much expected that. I expected us to win 2-0. Obviously didn’t expect us to lose. However, I think it just speaks to the fact that like when these guys (Talon) play their best, I’m pretty sure we can beat any team in the world.”

More than just attributing it to losing to a more experienced team, FrosT also accepted fault for not better preparing the members. However, he also warned that Leviatán had not been playing to form and that while it was a fairly good showing from Talon level-wise, it was not for Leviatán.

“I think they obviously played with a lot of confidence. You could tell that early on, we had some rounds where we just hard punished them. They were very confident coming into this. I mean, they called us mid right? And I don’t blame kiNgg feeling that way. He’s NA’s 1st seed. He should think everybody here is inferior to him at this point. So, no shot to him. He has the right to feel however he wants.

[...] I think they [Leviatan] played relatively well. They deserve the credit for being Americas’ 1st seed, true. But you can see today, they were heavily reliant on very specific things. I certainly think they need to be ready. Because if they did, if they do believe that their confidence is real and that they are the team they are going to be, this should have been a very, very, very good wake up call for them in order to make sure they tighten their things up. Because this could have definitely gone the other way.”

Was Gen.G’s victory at Shanghai the start of something?

When Gen.G lifted the trophy in Shanghai, many asked if this was the beginning of their era, a crystallization of the promise we saw at Madrid finally being realized.

However, what coach Frost said during the press conference stuck with me. “If we’re the 4th seed… unlucky for the rest.” Indeed. If the 4th seed of the Pacific region is already capable of playing to this level on the biggest international stage of the year, well then...

Yesterday we witnessed DRX close out a tight comeback against KRU Esports. Not the most convincing of performances, but still a win nonetheless. The day before, Gen.G gave Sentinels the biggest thrashing at VALORANT Champions 2024 to date, in front of a roughly 1000 strong crowd (don’t quote me on that audience count).

“I think Pacific is still, at the moment, the strongest region. I think 1 through 4, all 4 of us can make it out of groups.”

A former group stage demon, now reformed with 3 new hungry rookies; a Masters and Champions Grand Finalist; a Masters winner. Those are the teams ahead of Talon from the Pacific region. Of course, this is biased contextualizing. But the point remains, Talon did push Leviatán closer than they likely should have. More than that, we may have just witnessed the live debut of a new dark horse candidate today.

Tomorrow, VALORANT Champions Seoul action features Group D fixtures. Catch the action live on Twitch and YouTube. You can also watch the tournament on Valorantesports.com or  follow the games on Strafe.

Follow Valorant Champions Tour on X/Twitter for latest updates on Champions 2024.

Stay tuned on Strafe YouTube for exclusive interviews and more.

Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

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