A triumphant return: ZETA Division secure Valorant Champions

Last night in the Pacific, the Sangam Colosseum saw the return of a champion. After missing the VCT Masters Tokyo by an inch, the Japanese ZETA division made a strong run at the LCQ to secure the Valorant Champions 2023. The team completed an unbeaten run, defeating RRQ, and Team Secret on their way to Los Angeles. The run came after the team’s disappointing end to the regular season. They will now join Paper Rex, DRX and T1 as the pacific representatives.

VCT Pacific LCQ 2023 teams and format:

Similar to VCT Americas LCQ, the VCT Pacific LCQ featured seven teams seeded into the uniquely structured LCQ bracket according to the regular season placement. The bracket followed a single-elimination format until only four teams remained. The top two teams were directly placed in the upper semifinals. The complete bracket for the tournament is as follows:

Credits: Riot Games // VCT Pacific

The bracket transforms to a double-elimination bracket after the first two stages. The complete tournament featured best-of-three’s except Lower finals and Grand finals.

VCT Pacific LCQ 2023 recap:

The tournament started with the bottom two seeds in Talon Esports and Detonation FocusMe taking on each other in an elimination match. The winner of the game faced GenG, the sixth seed. The first game had Talon Esports taking on DFM. Neither team had a great season. In their previous encounter, Talon won over DFM and the outcome of the game was the same. Despite their attempts, DFM could not win over Talon.

In the second game of the tournament, Global Esports took on Rex Regum Qeon. Both teams had displayed some amazing counter-strike but could not qualify for the playoffs. In the game, RRQ defeated Global Esports 2-0, similar to their previous encounter. The last game of the single elimination bracket had GenG taking on Talon. The game started with both teams winning their respective map picks. The last map saw both teams taking over the game and forcing an OT. After four rounds in overtime, GenG came out on top.

The next part of the tournament is double elimination starting with RRQ taking on ZETA. In the series, RRQ made the first blow but ZETA came back to secure a 2-1 victory. On the other side of the bracket, Team Secret completely outclassed GenG and secured Upper finals. In the upper finals, ZETA displayed amazing strength to take down Team Secret 2-0. The losers took on each other in the lower bracket. After an intense three maps, GenG came out on top. With the win, they secured a rematch against Team Secret. Despite the first map win, GenG could not stay in the lead and lost the series 3-1. Team Secret advanced to the finals for a rematch against ZETA Division.

VCT Pacific LCQ Grand Finals recap:

The Grand finals between the two top teams of Pacific LCQ started on Fracture. Both Team Secret and ZETA Division displayed their dexterity to reach the grand finals. Both TS and ZETA were evenly matched in the fixture. Starting on Fracture, both teams managed to secure seven defensive rounds to force overtime. In overtime, ZETA managed to secure both the rounds to secure a 14-12 win on the first map. In the second map, both teams tied in the first half. But Team Secret’s defense made it really hard for ZETA to execute on site, leading to Team Secret winning the map 13-9.

The third map had ZETA’s double-duelist attack overwhelmed Team Secret. The unbelievable attack helped ZETA secure 10 rounds. Team Secret managed to counter-attack in the second half but the eight round deficit was too hard to overcome. With the map win, ZETA reached series point and were only a map away from Los Angeles. Lotus started well from ZETA and they secured a strong start but TS brought it back to close the half with only two rounds difference. The second half saw ZETA’s defense shutdown all of the TS attacks and they won 13-6. With the win, ZETA secured a 3-1 victory in the series.

With ZETA from Pacific, KRU esports from Americas and Giants and Natus Vincere from EMEA, we have all sixteen teams that’d participate in Valorant Champions 2023.

The sixteen teams are:

• League Teams
  • Evil Geniuses (Americas)
  • LOUD (Americas)
  • NRG Esports (Americas)
  • Fnatic (EMEA)
  • FUT Esports (EMEA)
  • Team Liquid (EMEA)
  • DRX (Pacific)
  • Paper Rex (Pacific)
  • T1 (Pacific)
• Qualified teams:
  • Bilibili Gaming (China)
  • EDwards Gaming (China)
  • FunPlus Phoenix (China)
• Last Chance Qualifiers:
  • KRU Esports (Americas)
  • Giants Gaming (EMEA)
  • Natus Vincere (EMEA)
  • ZETA Division (Pacific)

These sixteen teams are already divided into four groups out of which eight will qualify for the playoffs. In just two weeks, all these sixteen teams will enter the conclusive battle of VCT 2023. Follow VCT Twitter for all updates on Valorant Champions 2023

Credits: Riot Games //  VCT Pacific.

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