VCT Pacific: GEN.G knocks off Team Secret, ZETA Division in play-ins

Korean VALORANT team GEN.G powered through a grueling day of competition to knock two popular teams off of VCT Pacific Kickoff contention.

In a bruising and tough day of competition, both Team Secret and ZETA Division fought tooth-and-nail to try and keep their Masters Madrid hopes alive.

 

(Photo from Riot Games)

In the first match, Team Secret fought in a bruising match against GEN.G that saw the Adobo Gang dominate the first round against the Tiger Nation in Breeze.

However, a resurgent GEN.G squad saw them reverse and read well Team Secret’s gameplay to snag Lotus in a 13-9 showdown.

However, it was the Icebox decider map where both the GEN.G and Team Secret squads showed grit and tenacity, as the map went into double overtime.

In the final round of overtime, Team Secret rookie Noel “NDG” De Guia got killed by a backdoor play by Kim “Lakia” Jong-min to put a dent on Team Secret’s chances.

By the second match, the all-Filipino Team Secret speedrun ZETA Division’s first map by giving them a 13-1 on Icebox.

However, a valiant fight from ZETA Division slowed the game’s pace down with both teams going round-for-round, but Team Secret managed to pull away with a 13-8 victory on Ascent in what would have become their final match in Kickoff.

 

However, it was in the third match of the night – ZETA versus GEN.G – that really sealed the fate for both ZETA and Team Secret. TS was hoping that ZETA would win in order to force a tiebreaker on who gets to the playoffs.

By the first round on Icebox however, it became clear that the Tiger Nation was pulling out all the stops to win – capitalizing on the thrashing that ZETA got from TS earlier. GEN.G won Icebox 13-6.

Ascent was the clear definition of dominance from the Tiger Nation, as a halftime 10-2 completely changed the overall course of the play-ins – and crushed hopes for Team Secret’s Masters Madrid dreams.

The final kill on Ascent happened when Hiroki “hiroronn” Yanai failed to stop a 3-man post-plant situation against Kim “t3xture” Na-ra, Kim “Karon” Won-Tae, and Kim “Meteor” Tae-o.

With the move, all three teams from South Korea – DRX, GEN.G and T1 – are now qualified for the playoffs, alongside the 2023 VCT Pacific champion, Paper Rex.

The VCT Pacific playoffs start at February 24.