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Michelle Lojo - Philstar.com
April 24, 2025 | 9:35am
MANILA, Philippines — All-Filipino Valorant squad Team Secret ended its Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Pacific Stage 1 campaign on a high note by taking down the seed of its group RRQ, 2-1.
Having been eliminated from the playoffs the week prior, Team Secret hoped to secure at least a championship point in their last match in Stage 1, while RRQ sought to continue its win streak as the top seed of Group Omega.
The matchup's opening map saw RRQ and Team Secret to the limits, heading into double overtime after both teams took a 9-3 score on the attacking side. The timeout eventually favored RRQ, but the Adobo Gang bounced back with a dominant display in their map pick of Ascent, securing a 13-5 win to force a decider.
On Lotus, Team Secret saw an 8-4 lead at the half, but RRQ pulled off a four-consecutive-round win to delete the score gap. But with nothing to lose, Team Secret managed to avert collapse, taking four consecutive rounds of its own to finally secure its first win of the year.
"This is what I always expect from our performance when there's no pressure at all like because this game has no bearing for us already. I think we played really well. We played how we used to play in [our] practice matches and I'm really happy that we at least get a win before we go out,” Team Secret's Jessie "JessieVash" Cuyco said during the post-match interview.
For coach Ji "meow" Dong-jun, the mindset leading up to the match was to eliminate pressure and keep a positive attitude for the team.
"All my previous interviews were about how we're making so many mistakes. How the guys are very stressed. Their mentality is broken and I think what worked today was, actually, it wasn't the change of comps. We didn't do any of those. Instead, we actually made a talk on how we can try. Let's try to play more free, like no pressure guys like I kept telling them in scrims. We play so well when we're actually having fun. So I just kept telling them, 'Guys, let's have fun guys, no pressure right,' and it worked,” said Dong-jun.
On the other side of the group stages, Patrick “PatMen” Mendoza and Paper Rex secured their playoffs spot at the expense of fellow Filipinos Federico "Papi" Evangelista, Kelly "kellyS" Sedillo and Mark "patrickWHO" Musni and Global Esports.
Opening the final week of group rounds for VCT Pacific Stage 1, a close first half in Global Esports' map pick of Split saw Paper Rex taking a dominant attacking side to close out the series at 13-5. In Lotus, Global Esports managed to tie the game at 8-8, only for Paper Rex to take four consecutive rounds to bring them to match point. Although Global Esports scored another round, the lead was enough to bring Paper Rex to victory and secure the final playoffs spot.
Paper Rex is seeded in the lower bracket and awaits the loser of the do-or-die match between DRX and T1 on May 3.
