Favorites, underdogs, tournament format and more in the review of VCT 2025: Pacific Kickoff
The official 2025 season is in full swing and the last one to kick off as always is the Pacific region. One of the most anticipated regions, as some of the best teams and players of the professional VALORANT scene perform there. In this piece, we'll go into more detail on the format, the prize pool participants, discuss the favorites and outsiders, and much more ahead of the exciting VCT 2025: Pacific Kickoff.
In this article:
General information about the tournament
VCT 2025: Pacific Kickoff is a regional tournament that will be held in Seoul at the Sangam Colosseum and will be the opening event of the competition season in the Asian region. Similar tournaments will be held in each region. This is a closed event with only teams partnering with Riot Games, the tournament organizers.
Date and format of the event
This year, the Pacific region will start late while the others have already played their first matches. According to official data, the first matches of the Pacific region will start on January 18 at 09:00 CET. The winners of the tournament will be decided already on February 9. The entire event will be held offline in Seoul at the Sangam Colosseum.
In 2024, the organizers used to divide the tournament into 3 stages: group stage, play-in and playoffs. However, this year they have decided to do away with the first two stages, and so VCT 2025: Pacific Kickoff will only be held in a playoff format. Thus, the teams will compete against each other under Double-Elimination rules, where two losses mean elimination from the tournament. All matches will be played to 3 wins, and the finals of the lower grid and grand finals to 5 wins.
Participating teams
As mentioned above, there are 12 partner teams participating in the event. The list of participating teams for VCT 2025: Pacific Kickoff is as follows:
Team seeding
Since the tournament is only a few days away, the organizers have already presented the schedule of the upcoming matches. Below you can see how the team pairings for the first matches of the playoff stage have been formed.
Due to their successful performance last season, teams such as: Paper Rex, TALON, Gen.G Esports, DRX have secured their place in the quarterfinals and are awaiting their first opponents.
Favorites and Underdogs
Favorites
After an intensive transfer window, it is difficult to determine the clear favorites and outsiders of the tournament, as most of the renewed squads have not played a single match yet. Their debut will take place at one of the most important tournaments of the year. In our humble opinion, the best teams of the season in the Pacific region are dominated by T1 and Paper Rex.
Despite not having the best year last year, T1 has added some incredible talent to their roster, such as BuZz, Meteor, and Sylvan, who are widely regarded as some of the best players in the region. Teaming up with Stax, many analysts are expecting the team to have great success not only on the regional scene.
Unlike T1, Paper Rex has not changed their roster except for one player. The 2024 World Championship was very difficult for the Singaporean club, but despite this setback, the team dominated the Pacific scene throughout last season. This year, they are likely to continue that trend.
Outsiders
If one outsider is to be singled out, it is absolutely Boom Esports, a team with 4 Singaporeans and one Kazakh. The team was without an affiliate last year, but thanks to a Bleed Esports kick, the club is back on the Tier-1 scene. Based on the fact that their squad doesn't have much experience amongst the Tir-1 teams, they could very well be sent to last place.
Dark Horse
Many Influencers, coaches and experienced players have already expressed their opinions about the new DRX roster. Even though their lineup is very good.
Tournament prizes
As these are regional qualifiers, Riot Games has not allocated a prize pool as in previous years. Instead, teams will compete for two invitations to the upcoming Masters Bangkok and Pacific points, which will be crucial for qualifying for the World Championships in the future. The prizes will be distributed as follows:
- 1st place: invitation to Masters Bangkok + 3 Pacific Points
- 2nd place: invitation to Masters Bangkok + 2 Pacific Points
- 3rd place: 1 Pacific Point
- 4th place: 1 Pacific Point
- 5th-6th places: no prize
- 7-8th places: no prize
- 9-12 places: no prize
You can follow the tournament and all the events at VCT 2025: Pacific Kickoff in our special section, where we promptly cover all the latest news and provide up-to-date statistics.
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