The regular competitive season on the VCT scene continues, and teams are preparing to bring their best game to qualify for the second major Masters this year, which will be held in Toronto. Just like the first major event, to qualify for the Masters Toronto 2025, teams need to show their best performance at the Stage 1 regional qualifiers. The Chinese League started a week ago, and in 2 days, the competitions in the most interesting region, Pacific, will begin. Therefore, today, we have prepared a material for you in which we will tell you all the known information about VCT 2025: Pacific Stage 1.
General information about the tournament
VCT 2025: Pacific Stage 1 is the second of three qualifying events in the Pacific Valorant. As in the past, the tournament will feature teams of VCT partners competing for invitations to the upcoming Masters Toronto, as well as for Pacific Points, which are needed to qualify for the upcoming Valorant Champions 2025. But unlike last year, the number of partner teams in 2025 has increased to 12, thanks to the victory of former Sin Prisa Gaming players, and now current members of Nongshim RedForce at Ascension 2024. The event is organized by Riot Games with the support of sponsor companies: ZOWIE, Predator, intel, pulsar.
Date and format of the tournament
VCT 2025: Pacific Stage 1 will be held from March 22 to May 11, 2025 in LAN format at Sangam Colosseum in Seoul. It is interesting that before 2025, professional matches in this arena were held only in 2023, and the entire 2024 in the Pacific region was held at COEX Artium.
The tournament format has also undergone some changes. While at the previous Kickoff qualifiers, the organizers abandoned the group stage and there was only a playoff stage, at VCT 2025: Pacific Stage 1 there will still be groups, and therefore the tournament format will be divided into 2 stages. During the group stage, 12 participating teams will be divided into 2 groups, Alpha and Omega, with 6 teams in each. The group stage will last from March 22 to April 21, and during it, the teams will compete in the Single-Round Robin format. All matches will be up to three wins, and the 4 strongest teams from each group will advance to the playoffs.
The exact date of the playoff stage has not yet been announced. During it, the teams will compete in the Double-Elimination format. The team that earns 2 defeats will leave the event. All matches will be played up to three wins, and the lower bracket final and grand final up to five wins.
Participating teams
As mentioned above, 12 partner teams from the Pacific Rim will take part in the tournament. They have been divided into two groups by draw:
Group Alpha:
Group Omega:
Match schedule
The organizers have already shown the match schedule for the entire group stage. It will be divided into five game weeks, each of which will feature 6 matches. The tournament opens with a clash between Detonation FocusMe and Global Esports, which will take place on March 2 at 10:00 EET. It is also worth noting that the two strongest teams from each group will get a slot in the semifinals of the upper bracket, the teams that took 2nd and 3rd place will get to the first round of the upper bracket, and the teams that took the last 4th place will get to the first round of the lower bracket.
Favorites, outsiders and dark horses
Although we will be covering all the matches at the upcoming VCT 2025: Pacific Stage 1 and write predictions for them, we also want to highlight a few teams before we start. Please note that the text below reflects the subjective opinion of the author.
Favorites
First of all, we want to mention the favorites, and first of all, T1 deserves this title. After a series of changes in 2024, the team suddenly became one of the strongest in its region, and recently on the international stage, thanks to the victory at Masters Bangkok 2025. The example of T1 perfectly shows how a few good substitutions can turn an outsider into not only a favorite, but also a champion.
The next favorite team is DRX, and it has a very interesting history of confrontation with T1. The fact is that in the past, two players from DRX moved to T1, which makes the matches between these two clubs quite fundamental. Despite this, DRX has still assembled a great roster that can now be considered the top 2 in their region after T1.
Underdogs
In fact, there are quite a few outsiders in the Pacific. The following teams are among them: Detonation FocusMe, Global Esports, Rex Regum Qeon, and TALON due to the lack of results both last season and this season. In addition to them, Nongshim RedForce and BOOM Esports were also excluded due to their lack of experience in the Tier 1 scene, as these teams only received a slot in the VCT at the end of 2024. As you can see, about half of all the teams in the region look quite weak, and they are unlikely to achieve results.
The dark horse
A team that can show unexpectedly good results is Paper Rex. The fact is that the Singaporean club was one of the favorites in 2023 and 2024, and even won the second place at the World Championship. The beginning of 2025 brought the team 7-8th place in the first VCT 2025 qualifiers: Pacific Kickoff and a pass to the Masters Bangkok 2025. Therefore, many believe that Paper Rex is no longer the same and has lost ground. But we still believe that this is not the case. The team has every chance to improve the situation and show good results in the next qualifiers.
The prize pool
At the upcoming tournament, the teams will compete without a prize pool, as Riot Games allocates money only for Stage 2. Instead, teams will compete for 3 invitations to the upcoming Master Toronto 2025. In addition, the first four prize places will be awarded Pacific Points, which are necessary to get to Valorant Champions 2025.
- 1st place - Invitation to Masters Toronto and 5 Pacific Points
- 2nd place - Invitation to the Masters Toronto and 3 Pacific Points
- 3rd place - Invitation to the Masters Toronto and 2 Pacific Points
- 4th place - 1 Pacific Points
- 5-6th place - No prizes
- 7-8 place - No prizes
- 9-10th place - No prizes
- 11-12 place - No prizes
Now, you have learned all the necessary information about the upcoming VCT 2025: Pacific Stage 1. You can find out more about the results of all the fights at the tournament, as well as news related to the Pacific region, by following the link on our website.
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