The Battle of the top dogs: VCT Pacific League Playoffs Preview

The League play of VCT Pacific concluded on 16th May. The eight-week-long affair concluded with a superweek. The league had intense action, with the final teams for the playoffs finalized on the last day. The VCT Pacific playoffs will start today. Six teams will battle in a double-elimination bracket with three qualification spots for VCT Masters Tokyo.

VCT Pacific League playoffs teams and format:

The seedings of the teams after eight weeks of League play in VCT Pacific are as follows:

Credits: VCT Pacific

The top six teams from the total ten will play in the VCT Pacific playoffs. The playoffs will be a six-team double-elimination bracket. The top two teams on the leaderboard are directly seeded into the Upper semifinals. The two teams, Paper Rex and DRX, need only one win to qualify for the VCT Masters Tokyo.

The first round will feature ZETA Division taking on Team Secret and T1 taking on GenG. The winners of these games will take on DRX and Paper Rex, respectively. The winners of the Upper Semifinals will qualify for VCT Masters Tokyo. The game losers will play the lower rounds to clinch the final spot.

VCT Pacific League Round 1 Fixture Preview:

The VCT Pacific playoffs’ first-round fixtures will start with the ZETA division taking on Team Secret.

ZETA Division vs. Team Secret:

Team Secret made a statement in the superweek. They took down the best team in VCT Pacific in DRX. ZETA will be coming off a win, but their superweek record won’t be as clean as Team Secret’s. In their previous encounter, ZETA Division won over Team Secret in three maps. But since then, Team Secret seems to have found its groove and will be coming into the game looking for a win.

Currently, both teams seem neck and neck. The winner of the games will be decided based on the team making the fewer mistakes. The winner of the game will face DRX in the Upper Semifinals.

T1 vs. GenG:

The Korean derby rematch will see GenG taking on T1. In their previous encounter, GenG dominated T1 and emerged victorious over their Korean brethren. But after the win, GenG lost to DRX and since then has been unable to recover and look like themselves. T1, on the other hand, only lost to DRX after losing to GenG. T1 is riding the momentum, and GenG has much to work on, giving T1 an edge in the fixture. The winner of the game faces Paper Rex. A team which defeated both T1 and GenG.

Playoffs Predictions: 

DRX and Paper Rex are the top teams, and it will be difficult for any team to beat them. With three slots of qualification, it’s highly likely, DRX and Paper Rex will occupy two of them. For the final spot, all the other teams will be hungry. With Masters being held in Tokyo, ZETA has increased motivation to attend the event. Similarly, Team Secret, with the increased momentum and the confidence of defeating DRX, will likely be another strong contender. T1 and GenG both have shown some impressive Valorant throughout the season and can make a run for third place. But currently, the team that seems in better shape to take the third seed has to be in the ZETA division. After their recent win over GenG, ZETA looks like a new team, and they will build on that in the week to qualify for VCT Masters Tokyo 2023. 

VCT Pacific playoffs start today. Follow VCT Pacific's Twitter for all the updates regarding VCT Pacific.

Credits: Riot Games // VCT Pacific

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