In their journey to reaching VCT in the 2025 season, two Challengers League teams punched their tickets to Tokyo for the Champions Tour Pacific: Ascension this week.

Ascension is the unforgiving gauntlet that is the opportunity for a Tier 2 team to reach the VCT. In last year's rendition, BLEED BLEED Asia-Pacific Rank #23 were crowned champions of the competition and earned a two-year stay in VCT.

In the Pacific region, champions of ten regions are set to compete in two groups of five, with a modified double-elimination narrowing the groups down to three teams that will compete in a single-elimination tournament.

WDG Challengers League Korea: Sin Prisa Gaming

On Saturday, Sin Prisa Gaming Sin Prisa Gaming Korea Rank #2 Persia Yang Zi-on (양지온) margaret Kim Ji-woo (김지우) Dambi Lee Hyuk-kyu (이혁규) Francis Kim Mu-bin (김무빈) Ivy Park Sung-hyeon (박성현) continued their undefeated form in Split 2, defeating Nongshim RedForce Nongshim RedForce Korea Rank #3 Xross Jeonghwan (정환) Kally Banger An Hyung-gi (안형기) Cloy SID in five maps.

The win came despite a stellar Split 2 for Nongshim Redforce's SID , who was named the MVP of the stage. Meanwhile, Sin Prisa Gaming's Ivy was named the MVP of the Grand Finals.

On map 3, Sunset, Sin Prisa Gaming controller player Persia impressed, finishing with a team-leading 20 kills in a 13-5 win. Persia would perform consistently throughout all five maps, finishing with a team-high 78 kills. Nongshim Redforce's Xross finished with 84 kills, the most in the server.

The series was back-and-forth, with no team winning two consecutive maps. The team that picked the map would go on to win the map every time, leaving the fifth map to be the decider. On map five, Nongshim Redforce seemed to ride the momentum of a dominant map four, jumping out to a 7-3 lead on Abyss. When the map flipped and they were tasked with defending, they ran into troubles against the lurks of Sin Prisa Gaming's margaret , who had exclusively played Cypher in 2024.

By the time they had figured out how to stop him, it was already too late. Sin Prisa Gaming would win eight out of the final nine rounds to cap off an undefeated Split 2 and declare themselves champions.

Challengers League Japan: RIDDLE ORDER

On Sunday's VCL Japan Grand Final, RIDDLE ORDER RIDDLE ORDER Japan Rank #1 JoXJo Cho Byung-yeon (조병연) Caedye Amon Mateus Okakura Seoldam Park Sang-min (박상민) yatsuka would complete a dramatic reverse sweep, avoiding what would have been just their third loss of 2024 and their second of Split 2, defeating FENNEL FENNEL Japan Rank #1 GON Aace Souta Itou Hals neth Yusuke Matsuda MrTenzouEz 3-2.

RIDDLE ORDER found themselves in an unfamiliar spot. They had dominated their competition coming into the playoffs, boasting a 6-1 record and having only dropped three maps in Split 2. A 2-0 Upper Final win over Sengoku Gaming Sengoku Gaming Japan Rank #4 Gwangboong Kim Gwang-won (김광원) Kippei NOBITA Misaya yuran Yushin Hato seemed to suggest they hadn't missed a beat, but Sunday's bout with FENNEL proved to be a challenge.

In the first meeting between the two teams, RIDDLE ORDER would make quick work of FENNEL, winning 2-0, though both maps were closely contested.

In the rematch with the stakes higher than ever, FENNEL would seal the first two maps in convincing fashion. However, the two sides were locked into a standstill midway through map three on Bind. A long tech pause would lock FENNEL to their seats, just five rounds away from securing a 3-0 sweep and a spot in Ascension. After finally returning to play after over an hour, RIDDLE ORDER would storm back to win the map with a reverse sweep on their minds.

On map four, a showdown between SyouTa and Seoldam 's Jetts would define the outcome, with Seoldam's 27 kills, nine by way of the operator, paving the way for a winner-takes-all map five.

In the decider, RIDDLE ORDER, through excellent team play and a hot start to their attack side, would lift the trophy, marching onwards to Ascension. The match would end at 9:35 p.m. local time, five maps and over seven hours after it began at 2 p.m. in the Ariake GYM-EX in Tokyo.

Last year, Japanese VCL team SCARZ SCARZ Japan Rank #10 Yoshiii John Yoshiharu Kawakami lost in the final of Ascension. Now, RIDDLE ORDER will look to do what SCARZ could not do against BLEED BLEED Asia-Pacific Rank #23 last year: win Ascension and gain entry into VCT.

BLEED on stage lifting the 2023 VCT Ascension Pacific Trophy BLEED were last year's Pacific Ascension champions (Photo by Riot Games)

Ascension

Ascension will kick off on September 14. The ten regional champions will compete in two different modified double-elimination groups, with the top-three finishers of the groups advancing to a six-team, single-elimination knockout stage. Riot has not yet announced information on how the teams will be seeded.

The top teams of the Alpha and Omega groups will earn a bye into the semifinals, while the second and third place teams will be pitted against each other in an elimination match. The tournament will take place across seven days in a ten-day time frame.

The teams currently qualified for Ascension are:

Champions from the Vietnam, Phillipines and Indonesia regions will round out the rest of the Ascension field.