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VCT Pacific Face-off: Welcome to VCT Pacific 2023
The VCT Pacific league starts in a day, with the Zeta division taking on DRX. To commemorate the start of a new chapter in the Valorant Pacific, VCT Pacific organised a face-off event where teams attended in person and participated in fun events and media interviews. The VCT Pacific Face-off introduced us to all the participants and active rosters, putting them against each other in various challenges. Unfortunately, the complete roster of Global Esports could not attend the event due to VISA Issues.
VCT Pacific Vision:
Jake Sin, the Head of Esports Asia Pacific, addressed the format and the reason for the same. The vision behind establishing a league system for Valorant globally was to provide week-on-week Valorant action to the community by gathering the best of the best in the region. Each league spans for ten weeks, and after the league concludes, we will get the top teams from the regional leagues to take on each other at the VCT Masters. Each region has selected ten organisations based on the following criterion:
- Fan engagement and personality of each team/organisation.
- Ability to build team/roster
- Sustainability
Apart from this, VCT Pacific teams ensure maximum diversity. Riot selected the teams who had been big names in Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and India. The league aims to develop regional talent while ensuring high competition.
VCT Pacific Format Brief:
The selected ten teams will play each other in a round-robin format. The top six teams at the end of the League play will play in the double-elimination bracket playoffs. Three teams from the playoff will qualify for the VCT Masters Tokyo and Valorant Champions 2023. The remaining six teams will play the LCQ to qualify for the Valorant Champions.
Interesting takeaways from the player interviews (Media/Riot):
In a segment following Jake Sin's introduction to VCT Pacific, The pros answered some media questions, and in an additional segment, they answered some burning questions for the League. Starting with the biggest Challengers/contender for the VCT Pacific title. Almost all the players who answered the question unanimously mentioned DRX as the best team at the VCT Pacific. DRX's MaKo said that Global has a high ceiling and has some mechanically talented players, which might make them a significant challenger for all the other teams.
Answering for the best players, a lot of players said Jinggg, MaKo, f0rsaken, Rb, and intrO, amongst others. MaKo also gave a shout-out to Foxy9 and how he has a large cap when it comes to talent. Additionally, the pros answered the biggest lesson facing international competition: how hard work doesn't necessarily pay off as a result.
Media Interview #1:
In a follow-up media question segment, DRX Stax, GenG TS, T1 Ban, ZETA Laz, DFM Xnfri, PRX Benkai, TS Borkum, Talon Patiphan, RRQ Flipzjader answered the pre-submitted questions. Answering the questions, Stax shed light on how individual performance has cost them international titles. GenG's TS shed light on the Lock//in run and the communication problem which cost them the opening game. T1's Ban addressed the cultural difference between NA and the Pacific and how NA is more individual-focused while the Pacific is strat-heavy.
Media Interview #2:
While discussing preparation, Borkum mentioned they prepared how they normally do for VCT LOCK//IN and VCT Pacific. The Global Esports Coach talked about how the aggressive team falls into the structure. The pros also discussed other questions, and the whole segment can be found here (Part 1, Part 2).
The event also featured a fun 1v1 tournament. The 1v1 tournament was between the first and second sets of media interviews. The event concluded after the second set of media interviews. You can watch the complete event here.
Follow VCT Pacific Twitter for updates on everything Pacific Valorant.
Credits: Riot Games //VCT Pacific
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