Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) yoman Chae Young-moon (채영문) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) , Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #3 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov , and T1 T1 Korea Rank #2 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) Sylvan Go Young-sup (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) have all qualified to Masters Shanghai after finishing top three in the VCT Pacific Stage 1 tournament. The two teams that made it to Masters Madrid are returning to international play, while T1 bounced back from a poor regional stage to make it to their first international tournament of 2024.

DRX just miss out on Shanghai after going undefeated in Stage 1

One of the biggest surprises out of the VCT Pacific 2024 Stage 1 playoffs is DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) . They entered the playoffs undefeated since bringing in rookie flex player Kang "BeYN" Ha-bin (강하빈), and only needed to win one game to make it to their first international tournament of the year. They even had two chances, as their strong regular season play gave them a bye to the double-elimination section. Alas, they ended up facing the two teams that went to Madrid back-to-back, and lost 2-1 both times.

Both series were back and forth, but it wasn't as close as the scoreline suggested. DRX had specific maps where they looked better than their opponents, but when they lost, it was relatively one-sided. Their Ascent against Paper Rex was strong, just like their Bind against Gen.G. But they only managed to get double digits once in the other four maps. DRX lost 13-6 twice against Paper Rex, and then lost to a Gen.G team who refused to get eliminated after getting sent to the lower bracket by T1.

DRX received six circuit points for their Stage 1 performance.

T1 go from 2-4 to Shanghai

Out of all the teams that qualified for this playoff tournament, T1 looked to be the weakest due to their regular season performance. DetonatioN FocusMe DetonatioN FocusMe Japan Rank #3 Meiy Ibuki Seki Art Jinboong Kim Jin-won (김진원) Akame Yu Gwang-hui (유광희) gyen beat them, something no other Pacific team can say so far in franchising. Also, T1 were the only team with a negative win differential to make it to the playoffs in Pacific. However, as fans remember from the Pacific Kickoff tournament, the potential of the T1 roster remained high. In these playoffs, fans finally were able to see what T1 could do if Paper Rex couldn't eliminate them.

After a clean 2-0 win over Team Secret, T1 faced off against Gen.G and squeaked out a 2-1 series win. While Kevin "xccurate" Susanto and Ham "iZu" Woo-ju (함우주) led the way against Team Secret, Ha "Sayaplayer" Jeong-woo (하정우) and Lee "carpe" Jae-hyeok (이재혁) stepped up against tougher opponents to get them to Shanghai. Looking at the series stats, it looked like Gen.G had the better fragging, but Carpe had a high KAST at 81% and the least deaths in the game at 39. That alone showed his patience and teamwork across that series. Plus, Sayaplayer had a great third map of the series with 25 kills and 228 ADR.

T1 then lost to Paper Rex 2-0 in the upper final, but they can start getting ready for international play.

Paper Rex and Gen.G return to international play

The Pacific teams that made Madrid are returning to try and contend for the title in Shanghai. Paper Rex look reinvigorated with Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie returning to the lineup, back at the same level as the team that made the Champions finals back in 2023. Beating T1 to get their spot in the regional finals, they have another chance to try and get that first seed for Pacific that they missed out on at Kickoff.

As for Gen.G, while they don't look like the same team that made the Madrid finals, they still have the chance to try and win the title they missed out on. In that winner-takes-all lower bracket win against DRX, it was Kim "t3xture" Na-ra (김나라) that seized the opportunity. For the second time this year, Gen.G eliminated DRX from an international tournament, as t3xture dropped 55 kills and a remarkable 16 first kills to only six first deaths across the series.

Gen.G will face off in the lower finals against T1 on May 11. Paper Rex will then face the winner of that matchup in the Stage 1 playoff grand finals to see how the seeding falls for the Pacific region heading into Masters Shanghai.