The Pacific region’s path to the Game Changers Championship saw eight teams from across Southeast Asia (SEA), Korea, Japan, Oceania and South Asia converge at the event of VCT 2025: Game Changers Pacific, held 6–12 October in Bangkok. The format was a double-elimination playoff with two spots to the Championship on the line: the grand finalists both make it.
Here are the eight teams that made the Pacific event:
With these eight teams ready to play, the Pacific event promised both established powerhouses and breakthrough contenders.
The standout story of the Pacific region was Xipto Esports GC. Entering the event as SEA’s second seed, they took full advantage of the bracket to become the region’s first seed for the Championship. They went through the entire event until the grand finals, finding clean 2-0 victories, with them finally shutting down Team Falcons for the first time this year. They then defeated Ninetails 3–1 in the Grand Final of the Pacific event.
Under in-game leader capriciouS, the roster displayed dominant performances across the key players. The team’s flex player grahams and Deadlock-specialist Kon were particularly strong in the Finals versus Ninetails, showcasing both raw fragging and high-level coordination. Additionally, players like yxqme on Waylay and PIETY had standout showings throughout the tournament, contributing significantly to Xipto’s clutch map wins.
In the Upper Final, Xipto defeated Ninetails 2–0 to lock in their spot, and then carried the momentum into the Grand Final where they wrapped up the title 3–1. The strength of their strategic depth, rotations, and individual peaks made them the worthy first seed from the region.
The second qualifying spot went to Korea’s Ninetails, who have established themselves as the dominant Game Changers team in Korea this year. Their streak of 21 straight wins before their first defeat at the hands of Xipto became a headline for their dominance in the domestic scene.
Central to Ninetails’ success has been their 16-year-old duelist DaNa, whose explosive entries and highlight-worthy plays grabbed attention globally. Alongside the team’s flex star 332, who pulled off multiple clutch rounds with Viper and Yoru usages, every player on the roster showed dominance throughout GC Pacific throughout their run.
Ninetails dropped into the Lower Bracket after a loss in the Upper Final to Xipto, then defeated Team Falcons Vega 3–2 in the lower final to secure their ticket to Seoul. They are the first Korean team in GC Pacific’s history to make it to the GCC.
While Xipto GC and Ninetails secured the two slots for Pacific, it’s worth noting the journey of the other qualified teams and one near-miss story. As listed above, the eight teams represented all corners of the Pacific region. Among them, Team Falcons Vega were especially strong in the SEA subset; they secured the SEA #1 slot for the Pacific event, thanks to their dominant SEA results in the year.
Unfortunately for Falcons Vega, despite winning both SEA Split 1 and Split 2 and entering as SEA’s top seed, they narrowly missed out on qualification to the global Championship because they did not finish in the top two at the Pacific event (they placed 3rd) and thereby did not qualify through the regional route. Their loss in the lower finals at Pacific to Ninetails (3-2) proved costly.
NOVA GC locked in China’s direct berth by winning both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the China Game Changers circuit, without dropping a series the entire year. On Stage 1 (China GC Stage 1) they took the title, then followed through on Stage 2 with a dominant win over Ambitious Legend Gaming GC.
NOVA’s roster featured two players from Southeast Asia: shirazi (formerly on team SMG in 2024 before moving regions to play in China this year) and Alyssa (formerly on Full Sense Sapphire before moving to China in 2024). In the Stage 2 China Grand Final, their duelist Clem exploded with 93 kills across 4 maps, helping seal the 3-1 win and secure the qualification spot.
With Xipto GC (Pacific #1) and Ninetails (Pacific #2) qualified, the Pacific region sends two teams to the Championship while China sends NOVA GC as their sole representative.
For Xipto GC, the challenge will be maintaining the baseline of performance they showed in Bangkok and translating it to Seoul against the very best. For Ninetails, their domestic dominance is proven — but the global stage is always a new beast, and both DaNa and 332 will need to bring peak execution. Finally, for NOVA GC, the adjustment to the world stage will test whether their domestic clean record holds up under the global spotlight.
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