Riot has announced the removal of BLEED BLEED Asia-Pacific Rank #22 from the VCT Pacific League ahead of the 2025 season, citing a "failure to comply with critical reporting requirements and other key obligations under the Team Participation Agreement". Their slot will be taken up by BOOM Esports BOOM Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #2 dos9 Zhumagali Dastan Famouz Fikri Zaki Hamdani Shiro Hildegard Arnaldo NcSlasher Sheldon Andersen Chandra BerserX Rizkie Adla Kusuma , who most recently finished second at Pacific's Ascension.
Entering the competitive scene back in 2021, BLEED managed to hold its own within APAC's Challengers, but was never able to break into an international event. Despite not being among the initial batch of orgs accepted into the partnership leagues, BLEED fought through Challengers and secured the Malaysia/Singapore ticket to Pacific Ascension 2023.
Fighting through the group stage and making it all the way to the grand finals, BLEED became the first APAC team to secure a spot in the VCT by sweeping SCARZ SCARZ Japan Rank #9 Medusa An Min-cheol (안민철) Anthem Yoshitaka Enomoto LOB Lim Byung-gun (임병건) Satwoshi Yoshiii John Yoshiharu Kawakami 3-0. The organization rode the momentum into 2024 and signed big names throughout the season, but managed to pick up only a single win against DetonatioN FocusMe DetonatioN FocusMe Japan Rank #7 Meiy Ibuki Seki Art Jinboong Kim Jin-won (김진원) Akame Yu Gwang-hui (유광희) gyen throughout Kickoff, Stage 1, and Stage 2.
BOOM on the other hand looked ready to mirror the achievements of 2023 BLEED in this year's Ascension. The team dominated the Indonesian Challengers scene and made their way all the way to the grand finals of Pacific Ascension 2024, but fell in a heartbreaking five-map thriller to 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) .
Initially promised two years within the Pacific League, BLEED were slated for one more year of participation before being removed from the VCT. Riot has stated that their vacant slot will now be occupied by BOOM, while the Pacific League will continue with 12 teams this year.
BOOM are guaranteed this upcoming year, but according to the revised rule set regarding ascended teams, their performance within the VCT will most likely determine how long their stay lasts.