*Hello Friends,
APAC Challengers are starting in THREE DAYS (9th June)! The top 20 teams in all of our beautiful region are meeting to find out who truly is on top. With the event approaching rapidly let's look at a few storylines going into this event, and take a step back and see what brought us here. *
Three Storylines:
ORDER Gaming: Underestimated, or Overhyped?
ORDER gaming is an Australian eSports organization situated in Melbourne, Australia. The team has show that they are a top tier OCE team with the #1 Teams in all of Oceania in LOL, VALORANT, FIFA and even CS:GO with the signing of the ex-Renegades roster. The team, despite winning four out of six of the OCE tournaments they have never made it international, this is because of the 2021 VALORANT Oceania Tour format.
The 2021 format was as follows;
There were three stages of tournaments followed by an invitational Championship stage. the top ranking teams from the three stages would be invited to the brawl of the Championship stage where the top two ranking teams would go to the NA LCQ for a chance to get into Champions 2021, part of VCT 2021. That meant that for a whole year of competing only two OCE teams would go to the NA LCQ. The two teams that did make it to the LCQ were ORDER and PEACE (PEACE were soon acquired by Chiefs ESC before the LCQ) but due to travel problems that were reported as quote "Incompetence" from Riot Games the two teams were unable to attend the event.
That was ORDER's first shot at an International Event but they missed it due to travel complications. and with that OCE's year was over.
In 2022 ORDER was back in the VOT, this time with more Riot backing the tournament series was able to attend APAC Challengers every stage, the winner if that VOT stage would then go to groups stage in the tournament. the 2022 VOT had also gained an OCE based production team in the form of LPL (Let's Play Live) who were able to run the tournament well. the small team was quickly loved by the OCE community. Moderators such as Skippythekiwi were loved by the community as well as Casters, Commentators and Observers.
Going into stage 1 VOT where many OCE organizations had backed out of VALORANT ORDER was the favorite to win the fifth OCE circuit, and win they did, the team made it to the Grand Finals with only losing one map to regional contenders Honey Badgers in a tight 8 - 13 loss on Bind, ORDERS favorite map at the time. meeting ORDER in the Grand Finals after their impressive lower bracket run was Bonkers, an F/A team consisting of some of the regions biggest stars who failed to get picked up by and org. ORDER eventually lost the series 1 - 3 in one of the regions biggest upsets. Bonkers eventually went to Thailand for the Challengers tournament where they were eliminated in a nail-biter series against Persija Jakarta in the lower finals (Group stage) after all maps went to at least Double Overtime.
In stage two ORDER was back to win. and this time they weren't going to take second place, The team parted ways with Autumn, their star duelist since the team signed in late 2020 as well as moving tucks to their CS:GO team. the team now had two star player roles open to fill. and in the places of tucks and Autumn ORDER signed WRONSKI and rDeeW. some of the regions flashiest stars, rDeeW himself had gone to Thailand with the Bonkers roster.
Entering stage two a new F/A super-team had emerged, the team was called BOBO and they had 3 of the mostly disbanded Bonkers roster. since the stage one showing from F/A teams the region was unsure about the dominance of ORDER.
they were wrong.
ORDER won the tournament after only losing one map in groups stage to FunCrew.
Heading into APAC ORDER have the backing of an entire region, the team HAS to show the world what Australia is made of.
Paper Rex: Will the kings keep their crown?
Paper Rex have for long been one of the most competitive team in APAC, but as of recently the team has found amazing success in the MY/SG scene as well as the APAC scene as a whole. The team has attended two Masters events, Won the MY/SG challengers five times, and has had consistent top 3 positioning in SEA challengers. however the team had never won a SEA event. The team placed fourth in Masters 1 2022 after being eliminated by ZETA division in the lower round 3. ZETA then went on to face OpTic in the Lower finals where they balled out of the tournament.
Entering 2022 the PaperRex were the favorite in the region, and for good reason, the team didn't lose a single map in MY/SG challengers stage one. the team beat Bleed Esports in 3 - 0 fashion in the Grand Finals which qualified them for Groups Stage in the APAC Challengers. Paper Rex only lost one map in Groups to Persija Jakarta in the upper finals. after beating Persija Jakarta in the groups stage the team didn't lose a single map until the Grand Finals, where they pulled out a 3 - 2 win against the Thai super team, XERXIA. XERXIA themselves had made playoffs in Champions under the banner of X10 Crit. the team was acquired by XERXIA in early 2022 where they dominated Regional Challengers.
Paper Rex pulled through in the APAC challengers which gave them #1 seeding in VCT Masters Reykjavik '22. Paper Rex lost their opening match to DRX in the quarterfinals and were knocked down to the lower bracket where they faced North American #1 seed, The Guard. Paper Rex then went on to beat The Guard and G2 eSports which put them in a top four position as they entered Lower Round 3 vs ZETA Division. ZETA won the series in 2 - 1 fashion knocking PRX out of the tournament.
Despite not winning the tournament this was the best Paper Rex had done at a Masters Event. Thanks to Paper Rex they convinced the world that APAC is a competitive region and they are not to be underestimated. Paper Rex showed the world what they're made of. Paper Rex want to show the world that they can win a Masters Event, but to do that they need to place top 2 in APAC Challengers first.
Global Esports: can the young guns show what SA is made of?
Global eSports are an Indian organization founded in 2017. the org entered VALORANT in late 2020 with the signing of SkRossi, Helliff, HellrangeR and SkillZ. after some shuffling Helliff left the team, in his replacement was LightningFast. in mid 2022 Global eSports signed Kohliii, experimenting with a six man roster. Like ORDER Global eSports has never attended an International event, despite this they are never underestimated. the team is full of young talent, specifically their star; SkRossi. SkRossi is considered the greatest VALORANT player in India and had unmatched mechanical skill for most people in the world.
Global eSports are an extremely competitive team but unfortunately never make the cut for an international event (other than SEA LCQ) with underwhelming placements just barely not making it. but this year was different for Global eSports, Global won the SCS LAN in a nail-biting lower bracket run after losing to Orangutan in the Semi-Finals. the team then went on to beat Revenant eSports, Velocity Gaming and Orangutan in a row to make it to the Grand Finals, where they faced off against Enigma Gaming where Global again barely pulled through in a 3 - 2 game.
South Asia is a grossly underestimated region and Global eSports are going to show us why we should recognize them.
End Note
APAC is a beautiful region with amazing teams. anyone could win this tournament! We just need to remember that we need to meet under our love for eSports. Who's ready for some VALORANT?
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