Few teams entered the 2025 Game Changers Championship in Seoul with more momentum, consistency, and promise than Xipto GC, the first seed from Pacific. After a dominant run through Game Changers Pacific, where they beat Ninetails twice and won their first trophy convincingly, they arrived in Korea as a legitimate threat to make a deep run.
But two sudden losses, first to Karmine Corp GC, then to Ninetails, ended their international campaign far earlier than expected.
And as Xipto revealed in their post-match press conference, their elimination was not caused by strategy, skill gaps, or nerves alone. Instead, they faced a perfect storm of catastrophic external circumstances: two major typhoons, flooded provinces, visa delays, and the inability to practice together at all.
Xipto’s struggles weren’t about the stage or the opponent; they were about survival.
When asked what changed compared to their strong performance in Pacific, capriciouS gave an honest, painful answer: “Lack of practice. After VCT GC Pacific a month ago, we probably practiced five to ten times max. That’s it. Because of the super typhoon, because of visas, and everything. To be honest, I don’t think we deserve to win at all. We didn’t give our best playing today and last time.”
She added, “Even if we won against them last time, I don’t think we deserved to win today.”
The Philippines was hit by two major typhoons in a single month, one striking the Visayas region, the second hitting Luzon, causing massive flooding, infrastructure damage, and power outages across multiple provinces.
Xipto was directly affected. Capricious said, “Grahams couldn’t come to practice for one to two weeks because she’s from Bacolod and their province was flooded. They evacuated to a safe place. When she got home, we still waited some days because they still had no electricity. She had to play at a computer café.”
Meanwhile, the rest of the team could not be together: “We were not bootcamping. We were all in our personal homes because of the visa process. We had to be in our respective countries to make sure we got it. A few were in Manila, Leanne (grahams) was in Bacolod, Yxqme was in Thailand.” They were scattered, disrupted, and unable to train.
When asked whether playing in Korea — Ninetails’ home ground — affected their performance, the team was clear: “It’s exactly like we said before. We didn’t practice enough and weren’t able to show our best. Our last month has been insanely chaotic. I had visa delays as well. It just wasn’t the right setup for us leading into this event.”
They refused to use it as an excuse, but it was undeniably the reality.
When asked what surprised her about the team this tournament, capriciouS answered “I’m proud we still tried to play and tried to win, even though it was really tough because of nervousness and everything. We didn’t give up. We’re all really frustrated right now. We’re driven competitors. We’ll remember the entire year. Our team worked really hard to get the win in Pacific, and we wanted to show that hard work here as well. Maybe the public’s expectations were lower, but ours were much higher. We’re not going to forget the losses either.”
CapriciouS also said, “My first Champs experience made me realize how hard it is to play under pressure. We were excited even though we didn’t prepare that much. It was a really nice experience because we got to see a lot of people supporting both Ninetails and us. I’m really happy to experience this, it’s such a rare experience.”
This was the first time at Game Changers Champions for all five players, and despite all the setbacks, Xipto had a year that redefined the landscape of not just their SEA region, but also in Pacific, thanks to their trophy-lifting run at GC Pacific.
Xipto’s elimination wasn’t the story they hoped to tell in Seoul. But their story is not one of failure: it’s one of perseverance through circumstances no esports team should ever have to face: natural disasters, visa delays, and the complete inability to practice together for the most important event of their year.
They were dominant in Pacific. And despite everything stacked against them, they still showed up, fought, and stayed together. Even if this was not the result they hoped for, they have had a year to be proud of.
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