VCT Pacific Kickoff: what you need to know

In what appears to be an explosive start to the competitive Valorant year for the Asia-Pacific region, the stakes couldn’t be higher as 11 teams will battle it out in the opening salvo of APAC’s road to Champions 2024.

With Riot Games outlining a new esports direction for Valorant, teams will have to qualify for global events via the Kickoff, Stage 1 and Stage 2. The new Championship Points system will also help an additional team qualify for Champions – through consistent team performance throughout the season.

After their Ascension performance from last year, Bleed Esports will join 2023 Champions runner-up Paper Rex, Team Secret, DRX, Detonation FocusMe, Talon Esports, Gen.G, Global Esports, RRQ, T1 and Zeta Division in VCT Pacific.

VCT Pacific Kickoff will have 3 phases. 19 matches will be contested across the 8-day tournament.

The group stage will be played in a GSL (Global Starcraft League) format with 11 teams seeded randomly into 3 groups. As Pacific Champions last year, PRX will be automatically seeded into Group C. This will be followed by the Play-ins which will be structured in a single round robin format. The 4 remaining teams that make it through will qualify for Playoffs where they will fight through a single elimination bracket. The top two teams in Kickoffs will earn a spot at Masters Madrid in Spain – the first global VCT event for the year.

The said tournament will begin on 17 February and will run until 25 February. Matches will begin at the following times:

• Group stage (17 – 21 February)
• Matches on 17, 19 and 21 February will start from 15:00 KST // 14:00 GMT+8
• Matches on 18 and 20 February will start from 17:00 KST // 16:00 GMT+8
• Play-ins (22 February): matches will start from 15:00 KST // 14:00 GMT+8
• Playoffs (24 – 25 February): matches will start from 17:00 KST // 16:00 GMT+8

 

WHERE TO WATCH AND FAN ACTIVITIES AT THE VENUES

The S FACTORY in Seongsu-Dong, South Korea, will host VCT Pacific Kickoff 2024. The said venue is said to be a “cultural haven for the youth,” according to a press release from Riot Games.

Tickets will be on sale starting 1 February, 12:00 KST // 11:00 GMT+8.

Non-Korean Residents can purchase a ticket by visiting this ticket website and type in “VCT Pacific” and/or “VALORANT” in the search bar to find the ticket page. The ticket page is available in English and Japanese. Follow the instructions to select your seats and checkout.

Fans in Korea can purchase tickets from this website.

Among the on-site activities for the tournament is the Icebox Popup Store, which sells official VCT Pacific and Riot Games merch, as well as the Icebox-inspired esports pub that will offer food to matchday ticket holders.

There will also be a Champions Countdown Spike and the VCT Photo Booths, as well as Fan Sign walls.

 

INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTS

Fans can also catch VCT Pacific Kickoff action through local language broadcasts at the following links:

English

• AfreecaTV: VALORANT_EN
• Twitch: VALORANT Pacific
• YouTube:VCT Pacific

Korean

• YouTube: VCT KR
• AfreecaTV: VALORANT공식
• Naver: Naver e스포츠

Japanese

• Twitch: VALORANT JP
• YouTube: VALORANT JP

Bahasa Indonesia

• Twitch: VALORANT ID
• YouTube: VALORANT Esports Indonesia

Thai

• AfreecaTV: VALORANT_TH
• Twitch: VALORANT TH
• YouTube: VALORANTesportsTH

Vietnamese

• YouTube: VALORANTesportsVN

Mandarin

• Twitch: VALORANT TW
• YouTube:VALORANTesportsTW

Hindi

• YouTube: VALORANTEsportsSA