Following a gauntlet week, which saw all 12 of the region's teams play two matches in a six-day span, Pacific Stage 2 continued.
Group Alpha, after ending with all six teams holding a 1-1 record, was divided into two parts after the second week, with three winning teams advancing to 2-1 and the three losing teams falling to 1-2. In Group Omega, trends from the opening week of the stage continued into the second week, with a pair of struggling teams falling to 0-3 and a familiar face cementing itself at the top with a 3-0 record. In the race to secure qualification to Champions 2025 and extend their stays in VCT, both Ascension teams sit outside of their respective group's playoff spots, which could be cause for concern.
The week's results are as follows:
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Gen.G
Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) Ash Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) 2-1 Global Esports
Global Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #27 UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) Kr1stal Savva Fedorov Papi Federico Evangelista ban Joseph Seungmin Oh yoman Chae Young-moon (채영문) Deryeon Derrick Yee
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DetonatioN FocusMe
DetonatioN FocusMe Japan Rank #3 Meiy Ibuki Seki SSeeS Tomonori Okimura Jinboong Kim Jin-won (김진원) Akame Yu Gwang-hui (유광희) gyen Koki Nakamura 2-1 TALON
TALON Asia-Pacific Rank #6 Killua Tanate Teerasawad thyy Anupong Preamsak Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam primmie Papaphat Sriprapha
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T1
T1 Korea Rank #3 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) DH Kang Dong-ho (강동호) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) 2-0 ZETA DIVISION
ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #6 TenTen Kim Tae-young (김태영) Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani Xdll Yuto Mizomori
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Rex Regum Qeon
Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Rank #7 Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh 2-1 Nongshim RedForce
Nongshim RedForce Korea Rank #4 Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민) Persia Yang Zi-on (양지온) Francis Kim Mu-bin (김무빈) Dambi Lee Hyuk-kyu (이혁규) Ivy Park Sung-hyeon (박성현)
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DRX
DRX Korea Rank #2 Flicker Kim Tae-hee (김태희) Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) Estrella Park Gun (박건) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) 2-0 Team Secret
Team Secret Asia-Pacific Rank #28 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes n1zzy Nguyễn Tấn Thành ZesBeeW Sha Mohtar kellyS Kelly Sedillo Wild0reoo Brheyanne Christ Reyes
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Paper Rex
Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 PatMen Patrick Mendoza Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov 2-0 BOOM Esports
BOOM Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #10 dos9 Zhumagali Dastan Famouz Fikri Zaki Hamdani Shiro Hildegard Arnaldo NcSlasher Sheldon Andersen Chandra BerserX Rizkie Adla Kusuma
The week started with a matchup that pitted familiar faces against each other. Recent Global Esports signing yoman went up against his former Gen.G teammates, while ban took on former T1 teammate Munchkin . At this point in the season, a strong understanding of what they are good at helped both teams to win their map picks swiftly in 13-3 fashion. Gen.G protected their Lotus, while GE stood tall on Icebox. On Corrode, Gen.G's double Controller comp of Viper and Omen gave them domination over mid, pulling them over the finish line to a 13-7 victory. Gen.G Duelist t3xture scored an ace, breaking the curse to help his team to its first victory in a match that he aces.
t3xture's monumental ace.The second match of the day saw DetonatioN FocusMe pull an upset over TALON, who had just broken a curse of a back-and-forth win-loss pattern. After stealing each other's map picks 13-9, DFM Duelist Meiy landed on Icebox, which has been arguably his best map this stage. Just over a week after dropping 39 kills against ZETA, Meiy led DFM to a 13-8 win, dropping a team-leading 19 kills in the process. He dropped a server-high 66 kills in the series, marking the second time this season that he has eclipsed the 60-kill mark this year.
T1 hosted ZETA Division in a historic event, which was the first-ever roadshow event in VCT history. The match, which saw brothers
Meteor
and
TenTen
clash for the first time in their professional careers, was not quite close. On ZETA's pick of Corrode, T1 fielded a double Controller comp of Omen and Astra, with Meteor on the latter. Recent
T1 Academy
T1 Academy
Korea
Rank #7
Pkm
Park Kang-min (박강민)
Moothie
Yoo Seung-Woo (유승우)
exa
Kim Lee-hwan (김이환)
GangPin
Chae Jung-moo (채정무)
Efina
Kim Nak-yeon (김낙연)
callup
DH
no longer showed any signs of rookie jitters, having the highest rating on the team with a 1.34. His efforts helped the hosts to a 13-8 win on the map. T1 opted for a double Duelist comp on its pick of Sunset, which ended 13-6 thanks to a dominant 9-3 defense half from T1.
In their fight to continue fighting for Champions qualification, Nongshim RedForce came up short against Rex Regum Qeon. The match saw NS barely claim a 13-11 win on their map pick of Corrode, followed by RRQ defending their Haven 13-8. While a well-rounded performance from NS willed the Ascension squad through two maps, starpower helped RRQ through the whole series. Jemkin and Monyet , who fill the team's Duelist roles, did most of the heavy lifting for the squad by way of kills, ending with over 60 each. On the decider map of Icebox, the duo combined for 41 kills to help RRQ blow out NS 13-3 and put their playoff hopes in jeopardy.
In the quickest series of the week, DRX pushed aside Team Secret, winning 2-0. Both maps were won 13-4. The series started with DRX's Icebox, where the Korean squad dismantled their opponents. After losing both pistol rounds, they won both of the following eco rounds, destroying Team Secret's economy. A 10-2 start on Team Secret's Corrode all but guaranteed the beginning of the end. With Estrella now taking on the IGL duties for DRX, MaKo appears to be playing more freely, leading to DRX recapturing their form from Pacific Kickoff to start the year.
A nice triple kill from free1ng was not enough to grab this round on Icebox.Since dominating the group stage of Stage 1, BOOM Esports has lost five straight matches in Pacific, winning no maps in that span. That run of poor form continued against Paper Rex, kickstarted by a 13-8 loss on their map pick of Bind. Riding a 9-3 halftime lead, the Paper Rex train never lost steam, fueled by a double Duelist comp featuring something 's Yoru and Jinggg 's Raze. On PRX's Lotus, a similar comp was fielded, with Omen entering for Brimstone and Vyse swapping in for Viper. While the map was a closer affair, PRX closed out a 13-10 win to move to 3-0.
something said no ace for Jinggg.VCT Pacific Stage 2 will continue next week with the following matches: