VCT Pacific: Ascension begins on June 28 with 10 teams participating. The event will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, with the group stage happening at the Pullman Grande Sukhumvit Hotel and the playoffs at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre. The playoffs begin on July 7.

The winners of the Challenger leagues across the Pacific region have qualified for the group stage. These teams will be divided into two groups - Alpha and Omega. Each group will have teams playing in a single round-robin format that will pit them against the other teams in their group in a Bo3.

The top three teams from each group will make it to playoffs, with the first seed of each group getting a ticket directly to the semifinals while the second and third seeds advance to the quarterfinals. The playoffs feature a single elimination bracket and the winner will be elevated to the VCT Pacific league for 2024 and 2025.

Group Alpha features ONE Team Esports, BOOM Esports, NAOS, XERXIA Esports, and Fancy United Esports, while group Omega has BLEED, SCARZ, Dplus Esports, Orangutan, and Bonkers. Here's a look at all the teams and their path so far.

Group Alpha:

Thailand - XERXIA Esports XERXIA Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #27

While XERXIA is a name that has long-represented APAC internationally, their previous core was signed by TALON TALON Asia-Pacific Rank #17 Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam primmie Papaphat Sriprapha ban Joseph Seungmin Oh Governor Peter No . The current team consists of players who don't have the same level of international fame quite yet. In Split 1 of Challengers: Thailand, the team failed to make the playoffs, finishing sixth. In Split 2, they ranked second after the group stage, and despite a loss to FULL SENSE FULL SENSE Asia-Pacific Rank #6 JohnOlsen Chanawin Nakchain Leviathan Thanyathon Nakmee aLerT Wattanachok Yingnakorn Potter Sutthichai Promsrikaew Sushiboys Panyawat Subsiriroj in the upper finals, XERXIA made a successful lower bracket run to play against FULL SENSE again in the grand finals and this time, they triumphed 3-1.

The team's controller main, xZe , has proven to be one of the best players on the team, and the rest of the squad have popped off in the past when necessary. Can XERXIA return once again to the international stage?

Vietnam - Fancy United Esports Fancy United Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #14 YESicaN Đinh Đình Đạt foxy Crus Lư Tiến Huy Hyuse tok1o Nia twilight

Fancy United is probably one of the most well-known teams in SEA, for not just their consistent performance over the past years, but as of 2023, for their out-of-the-norm team compositions. Four of their playing six were part of their 2022 squad, and their newest players, gin and Hyzee , have fit into the team quite well, as evidenced by the results. Fancy have only lost one series throughout Challengers: Vietnam Split 1 and Split 2 and have won both events.

The team across the board has fragging potential, with n1zzy consistently topping the scoreboard for the team. Can they keep up their record in Bangkok?

Hong Kong/Taiwan - ONE Team Esports ONE Team Esports Inactive YanLi Ra1ny Li Guo-Shuo (李國碩) ngk XyuS SecreT KiNo

This is a region and a team that's new to the VCL circuit, but that didn't stop ONE Team from winning both Challengers: Hong Kong/Taiwan Split 1 and Split 2. While they struggled a bit during the onset of Split 1, ever since they reached the playoffs, they haven't lost a series since, winning Split 1 with a clean 3-0 sweep over Griffin Esports. Split 2 was more of the same, with the team only dropping two maps over the course of the entire Split and once again finding a 3-0 win in the grand finals.

For the team, XyuS has one of the highest first kill statistics across the Pacific region, but it remains to be seen how he and the rest of the squad will measure up at Ascension. Can ONE Team be the dark horse sweeping that lone spot at VCT Pacific 2023 and 2024?

Indonesia - BOOM Esports BOOM Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #1 dos9 Zhumagali Dastan Famouz Fikri Zaki Hamdani Shiro Hildegard Arnaldo NcSlasher Sheldon Andersen Chandra BerserX Rizkie Adla Kusuma

BOOM Esports was one of APAC's representatives at Champions last year. With some of their players getting signed to play for VCT Pacific, BOOM picked up proven talent from the region, mainly from their key rival of 2022: ONIC G ONIC G Inactive . BOOM, perhaps because of their newer roster, had a rough time during Challengers: Indonesia Split 1. They placed second after two losses to Bigetron Arctic during the playoffs stage.

Split 2 saw them looking stronger, and despite falling to the lower bracket in the playoffs after a loss to Dominatus, they were able to find revenge at the grand finals, winning 3-1 to be crowned Indonesia's representatives at Ascension. The team is quite flexible when it comes to playing a variety of agents, and all their players have been able to step up and pop off when necessary. During the grand finals of Split 2, Famouz had 23 first kills to his name, while BerserX and blaZek1ng combined had a +25 kill differential. Will BOOM be able to make it to the international stage once again?

Philippines - NAOS NAOS Asia-Pacific Rank #5 xavi8k Xavier Juan JA John Timothy Arone Mojer Jerome Literal Nexi Nathaniel Cabero

NAOS is a name that has been around the Valorant SEA scene a while and while the roster kept two of their players from last year, the six-player team had several names from teams like South Built, Team Secret, and ZOL join for the 2023 season. NAOS won Challengers: Philippines Split 1 almost flawlessly, dropping only one series on their way to the finals.

Split 2 saw the same result, with the only series they dropped being the upper final in the playoffs against Oasis Gaming, their regional rivals. NAOS were able to bounce back, and after a closely contested Grand Finals, emerged as their regional champions after defeating Oasis. For NAOS, Papi , JA , and Witz have emerged to be extremely dependable players who are almost always up on the scoreboard and reliable in a clutch situation. Can NAOS join Team Secret at VCT Pacific by winning Ascension?

Group Omega:

South Asia/India - Orangutan Orangutan Asia-Pacific Rank #18 Makaveli Nikhil Chettri Venka Venkatesh Sharma deecee Daivik Chauhan Techno Shravana Kumar Sahoo hellff Sagnik Roy Hoax Aman Yadav

Orangutan have emerged as the unquestioned kings of the South Asia region after their dominance throughout Split 1 and 2. They did not lose a single series in either Split on their journey to represent the region at Ascension. Orangutan signed Enigma Gaming's core with three Indian players and Filipino talent tesseract . They rounded out the playing five with azys from South Built Esports South Built Esports Inactive azys Azis Nandang Pro Chris Martir flippy Philip Marique as their duelist/initiator flex.

Azys, Rawfiul, and Tessaract have all been incredibly consistent throughout the league, with Azys being crowned the MVP in the South Asia Challengers League. In the grand finals of Split 2, rawfiul had 20 first kills to his name, while Azys and Tessaract had 79 kills each to their name. Will Orangutan be able to put up the same kind of performance during Ascension to win them the coveted spot at VCT Pacific?

Malaysia/Singapore - BLEED BLEED Inactive

BLEED is one of the favorites to win Ascension this year. They only lost one series throughout their run in both Challengers: Malaysia/Singapore and won the grand finals of both splits 3-0. Aside from sticking with their core from last year, the organization signed sScary , one of the best controllers in APAC, for the 2023 season.

Throughout the season, sScary has consistently pulled off insane clutches. Both Deryeon and crazyguy shine on the scoreboard as well and this is a team with firepower across the board. Can they continue their domination at Ascension?

Oceania - Bonkers Bonkers Inactive Minimise Jackson White tixx Nick Quinn Maple Elvin Sun Dragon Nicholas Aleksandrovsky LEW Luis Hibbert

One of the mainstay rosters of the Oceania Valorant circuit, Bonkers has been around for a while. In fact, the sole signed VCT Pacific player from Oceania - WRONSKI - used to play for them. Over the course of Challengers: Oceania, the team has managed to win both Splits (they won Split 1 while under the organization 95x) and emerge as the region's representative.

Funnily enough, only Minimise and WAT were part of the Split 2-winning Bonkers roster since the beginning of the season. The rest of the squad all played for different teams and in fact, two of the players on Bonkers currently ( rDeeW and Dragon ) were their opponents in the Split 1 grand finals. Thus, this iteration of Bonkers could be considered the best of the region heading to Ascension. Will this squad be able to join WRONSKI as OCE reps at VCT Pacific next year?

Japan - SCARZ SCARZ Japan Rank #11 Medusa An Min-cheol (안민철) Anthem Yoshitaka Enomoto LOB Lim Byung-gun (임병건) Satwoshi Yoshiii John Yoshiharu Kawakami

SCARZ is one of the few teams here that didn't win both Splits in their region's Challenger league. Despite that, they were able to overcome their demons and win Split 2 after a successful lower bracket run to be the Japanese representative at Ascension.

The team has quite an aggressive playstyle, propelled by Jemkin and Kr1stal . They combined for 41 first kills in the grand finals of Split 2. The team, while having a bit of a rough time during their season, has nevertheless shown significant improvement since Split 1. However, it remains to be seen if this will be enough for them to win Ascension and give Japan another spot at VCT Pacific.

Korea - Dplus Esports Dplus Esports Korea Rank #17 NGen Lee Jae-hong (이재홍) Bangnan Jung Min-u (정민우) RedLight Kim Eun-soo (김은수) kAyle Jung Soo-yong (정수용) Only1 Park Dan-il (박단일)

Previously DAMWON Gaming, this is a roster with players who have international experience, such as allow and Lakia . Dplus Esports had a bit of a rocky beginning in Split 1, but gained momentum over the course of the season to win Split 1 with a 3-0 sweep in the grand finals. Split 2 saw them only lose one series, their first one, before they went on to win the Split without another defeat.

exy is another controller player to watch out for, and Allow excels at creating the space his team needs. The entire team has proven they can step up on an individual level throughout the season. Can Dplus Esports win Ascension to make sure that another Korean team joins the Pacific League?

Only one of these ten teams will be crowned the winner and join the VCT Pacific League for 2023 and 2024.