Riot announces changes to VCT Ascension Pacific

Riot Games has announced significant changes to Ascension Pacific, including a location change and format change. Pacific Ascension will now be held in Jakarta, Indonesia. A specific venue has not been announced yet.

Riot Games cited “significant event production delays and tournament quality concerns,” for the change. The event was originally scheduled to take place at the Ariake GYM-EX in Tokyo, where Challengers League 2024 Japan: Split 2 took place.

In the grand final between RIDDLE ORDER RIDDLE ORDER Japan Unranked Aace JoXJo Cho Byung-yeon (조병연) Caedye Amon Mateus Okakura Seoldam Park Sang-min (박상민) yatsuka and FENNEL FENNEL Japan Unranked GON CLZ SyouTa Xdll Yuto Mizomori , an hour-long technical pause would see play suspended for an hour on map three. The five-map match lasted over seven and a half hours.

The previous format for the ten-team tournament would have seen two different modified double-elimination groups, with the top-three finishers of each group advancing to a six-team, single-elimination knockout stage, where the top teams would earn a bye into the semifinals.

Riot announced that the new format will be “a more straight-forward, competitive experience.”

The tournament will be a ten-team double-elimination bracket, played across eight tournament days.

“This is a simpler format that will allow for lower bracket opportunities until the grand finals,” Riot said in their statement. “Matches will be played in a best-of-three format before switching to a best-of-five for lower and grand finals.”

The event was also originally slated to kick off Sept. 13, but will now be held from Sept. 20-29. Riot has not yet announced information on how the teams will be seeded.

The teams participating at Ascension Pacific are:

Revenant Esports Revenant Esports Asia-Pacific Unranked SkRossi Ganesh Gangadhar dos9 Zhumagali Dastan sultan Sultan Akbay skillZ Jayanth Ramesh tricky Prish Valvani Paradox Kasif Sayyed
FULL SENSE FULL SENSE Asia-Pacific Unranked JohnOlsen Chanawin Nakchain PTC Kititkawin Rattanasukol Leviathan Thanyathon Nakmee foxz Itthirit Ngamsaard Sushiboys Panyawat Subsiriroj
Rapid Lofi Rapid Lofi Asia-Pacific Unranked DaFt Huỳnh Tuấn Kiệt TRIPCIEW Vữ Minh Cường albus Trần Phúc Thiên Pr0digy Suka Nguyễn Văn Tiến BánhMj
Disguised Disguised Asia-Pacific Unranked grumble Vera Rodman Yap STYRON Tidus Goh Juicy Tyler James Aeria wayne Wayne Chang
Sin Prisa Gaming Sin Prisa Gaming Korea Unranked Persia Yang Zi-on (양쯔온) Jerry Min Tae-Hee margaret Kim Ji-woo (김지우) Dambi Francis Ivy
RIDDLE ORDER RIDDLE ORDER Japan Unranked Aace JoXJo Cho Byung-yeon (조병연) Caedye Amon Mateus Okakura Seoldam Park Sang-min (박상민) yatsuka
Oblivion Force Oblivion Force Asia-Pacific Unranked riyabtw GGHuiii Hui Ying Hon (许英汉) Uta coconut CHIMEI Wong Chun Wai (王俊煒) Kiuuuu Yung Tsz Kiu (容子翘)
NAOS NAOS Asia-Pacific Unranked JA John Timothy Arone PapiChulo Federico Evangelista Mojer Jerome Literal Emman Emmanuel Morales Nexi Nathaniel Cabero
BOOM Esports BOOM Esports Asia-Pacific Unranked ZesBeeW Sha Mohtar Famouz Fikri Zaki Hamdani Shiro Hildegard Arnaldo NcSlasher Sheldon Andersen Chandra BerserX Rizkie Adla Kusuma
JFT JFT Oceania Unranked kiss murza RAMEN IKANA ANDY

This shit is bad long term. ID fans will love it, but consider yourself being a Japanese fan. Your teams shat the bed last year and there were zero home teams to cheer for in last Masters (although they still cheered for all the other teams that came to Japan and was overall a good atmosphere). Then this year your teams are continuing to shitting the bed in the Pacific League. You even hear that Laz might retire.

Then there is their T2 scene, which was very close to winning Ascension last year. They are your hope. With streamer teams like Murage and Riddle, the scene is more hype than ever before. They are probably just as good or better than Zeta and DFM in Pacific. You hear from various people in the scene, both Japanese pros, coaches and casters as well as foreign ones saying VCJ is the most competitive, and probably the strongest T2 region this year in Pacific.

Ascension is in Tokyo. You are hyped as fuck as an avid valo fan. You finally get to see an international LAN in Japan where a Japanese team will participate, and not just that, but also as a top-dog. Though the thing is, all of that is gone, just a month before the Ascension. You feel extremely let down.

Now imagine if RID doesn't win Ascension. Putting yourself in a Japanese fan's persepctive, you'll agree that you'll feel hopeless for your scene. You'll have to huff some copium and hope that DFM and Zeta will get their shit together and recruit top talents from VCJ and fix their shit, but that's not garaunteed.

A lot hang on Riddle's shoulders now. They are like JP scene's last hope.