Paper Rex, DRX, T1 Qualify for VCT Masters Tokyo and Valorant Champions 2023
The three qualifying teams from APAC have been secured.
Cover-Credits:
The ongoing VCT 2023: Pacific League has finally attained its top three teams after two months of intense action which started out with ten partnered teams going head-to-head against each other.
Paper Rex from Singapore, DRX from South Korea, and T1 also from South Korea are the three teams that will be representing the Asia Pacific (APAC) region at both the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2023: Masters Tokyo and Valorant Champions 2023.
These are the first teams to solidify a slot for themselves for both tournaments, as the top three teams from Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Americas will be known on 26th May and 27th May respectively.
Paper Rex, DRX, T1 to represent APAC at VCT 2023 Masters Tokyo and Valorant Champions 2023
All three qualifying teams have put up one hell of a fight to make it this far in the tournament which was packed with incredible teams and talented players. Initially, all ten teams faced each other in the regular season which took place from 25th March to 16th May, but only six teams qualified to the next stage while the remaining four were eliminated.
In the next phase, the six qualified teams competed in the playoffs which featured a double-elimination bracket scheduled to take place from 19th to 28th May. The lower bracket final and grand final of the VCT 2023: Pacific League is still left to be played out and is all set to take place on 27th and 28th May respectively.
Paper Rex
In the regular season, Paper Rex finished second on the leaderboard with an overall score of seven wins and two losses. In terms of maps, they won 15 maps and lost only six, establishing a round difference of +63.
Meanwhile, the team has gone undefeated so far in the playoffs, handing consecutive clean sweeps to both T1 and DRX. As a result, Paper Rex has become the first team to secure a spot in the grand final.
DRX
The giant of the APAC region, DRX finished on top of the leaderboard with eight wins and one loss under its belt. The team won 16 maps in total and lost just four, resulting in a round difference of +79.
In the playoffs, the dominance of DRX seemed to have faded as it pulled a 2-1 comeback against Team Secret and then fell down to the lower bracket following a quick 2-0 defeat to Paper Rex.
T1
Another team from Korea, T1 finished third on the leaderboard with six wins and three losses under its belt. The team won 12 rounds and lost nine rounds, managing a positive map difference of +13.
In the playoffs, T1 pulled off a miracle lower-bracket run and has played the most number of matches till now, managing to make its way trough to the lower-bracket final where it now faces DRX.
It will be interesting to see which team ends up winning the VCT 2023: Pacific League. DRX could come back to hammer its domination once again or we could witness an upset at the hands of T1 or Paper Rex.
