Following today’s VCT Kickoff Pacific press conference, we have new information on Riot’s plans for VCT Pacific 2025. Jake Sin, Head of VALORANT Esports for Asia Pacific (APAC) broke down the new strategy for 2025 in the region, including some exciting news about this year’s location.
VCT Pacific Finals is coming to Japan
Japan’s teams have gone on miracle runs before, but have sometimes struggled in the regular season to keep up with a region largely run by the top heavy teams. As one of the more top heavy regions, Japanese fans have been loud and proud when their teams take to the screens, win or lose. Looking to have this enthusiasm rewarded, VCT Pacific will be taking its finals out of Korea this year to Tokyo. The venue itself has yet to be announced for the finals destination, but the move from Seoul to better represent the various regions competing in APAC is a welcome change.
And we weren’t the only ones taken by surprise. “I’m so surprised. I didn’t know that… I’d love to play in front of the Japanese crowd again” – Crws while finding out the venue destination alongside the rest of the players during the conference.
Tokyo is already considered one of the more expensive places to run an event, Riot have already run a VCT finals out of the country before so it’s possible we’ll be seeing a return to previous venues like the Tipstar Dome Chiba or Makuhari Messe.
Fewer Venues, Fewer Tech Issues (hopefully)
Another big change for this year is that VCT isn’t going to be going on a venue tour. APAC stood out amongst its sister regions because of its choice to travel the region and take events to various regions. While that gave us a bunch of different venues to see the players competing out of and a chance for local fans to get involved, it also meant a lot of running out of the venue for the first time. With that, APAC was plagued with a few technical issues that put a little bit of a dampener on the events marred by various technical problems.
Looking to stop these from adding up this year, we’ll be staying in Sangneum. All of the other regions all compete in their one singular venue, and while it was unique for APAC, improved stability as Riot looks to continue to polish VCT’s online and offline viewing experience.
New Teams in the region
Each year, VCT has been adding to number of teams in each region, this year, Nongshim Esports and Boom are the newest teams on the block. In addition to evening out the number of teams this year for more traditionally shaped double elimination brackets, the teams will be bringing their fans with them and more eyes to VCT as a whole.
We don’t know how well these teams will do to start with as they make adjustments to the bright lights and big stage. However, they’re one of the more well positioned regions for the new blood to get some wins on the board… Maybe just not in Kick Off.
Tejo in VCT Pacific confirmed
Of course, the brand new agent was a focus for a lot of us. Various teams were asked about their opinions on Tejo, not everyone is sure that they’ll take the risk on bringing him out at Kick Off, strong as he is. Except PRX. They’ve confirmed they want to run him, and will be making that everyone else’s problem.
Run-back season
All teams will have their eyes on VCT Masters Bangkok and get an early taste of international competition. ZETA are looking for the run-back vs T1 after being taken down by them in 2024, but at other sides of the bracket, we won’t get to see that until the regular season unless both teams go on a miracle run.
PRX’s something has his sights on Fnatic, NRG and Sentinels during international competition. The fanbases for each are massive, and any and all face offs between them will have a packed twitch chat and some of the loudest crowds in the venue, so he’s not alone in wanting to see these teams go head to head.
Gen.G Munchkin reflects on strong playoff runs
I got to ask Munchkin what he thought the key was to his team’s success in knockout brackets, being the only team to be in both Stage 1 and Stage 2 domestic finals. They struggled internationally, getting grouped in Champions, and having a relatively average regular season, so I wanted to know if there was anything he felt helped that team look like a contender for best in the region and best in the world at points.
“Even though we try our best every match that we have, we think that fatigue in the regular season builds up. In playoffs, we feel that ‘after this one we can take a break’ which helps us unlock an extra gear”, he said.
We only have a few more days to wait until the VCT Pacific kickoff and with so much going on it’s hard to know who to keep my eye on. Guess I’ll just have to watch the every VCT match. What a shame.
