What to expect in this year’s VCT Pacific Kickoff in South Korea

VALORANT fans in the Pacific region can expect a bigger, more intense season for competitive action as the VCT Pacific League will kick off February 17th.

At a press conference in South Korea, Jake Sin, Head of VALORANT Esports APAC at Riot Games, said they aim to improve on the milestones set by the inaugural VCT Pacific League last year.

Sin said, their broadcasts of VCT Pacific reached a peak high of over 400,000 live viewers, and had 25 million esports hours of total viewing time.

“We’ve also seen a ton of positive feedback from all across the APAC communities, So we really appreciate the level of support that we’ve been getting from our fan base over the world,” Sin told reporters.

Among the fixes they intend to do, Sin said, is to improve on the overall quality of broadcasts. While noting that broadcasts of last year’s season have been successful by adding different segments, Sin noted that breaks will be lessened in broadcasts this season to avoid viewer dropoff.

Sin also said, they are finding ways to still connect to the Korean esports audience with the impending closure of Twitch in Korea, which is slated to happen on February 27th.

“We’re still figuring out what exactly that means and what kind of technical limitations or accessibility issues we might run into with Twitch for the fans in Korea, but there’s not been material impact to our partnerships or sponsorships. Our business has remained intact. It’s not been affected drastically. we’re pretty confident in our ability to retain the viewership via other platforms without Twitch,” Sin said.

Player loan agreements and other esports ecosystem sustainabilities are also in the pipeline.

“This includes affiliate partnerships, two-way players and player loans that allow international league teams to loan players on their roster to other teams and Challengers or Game Changers. With these initiatives we can provide teams with more flexibility on where they deploy their players to improve talent development,” Sin said.

Another aspect of this year’s Pacific League that Sin highlighted was the improvements on the business side of VALORANT Pacific esports.

Aside from the entry of new sponsors, Sin revealed that team skins will soon be made available.

“This year, we’ll also launch team skin bundles where in-game revenue generated will benefit the pro teams directly,” he said. “The skins are really cool. I’ve seen them, and I can’t wait to get my hands on them as well.”

Currently, there are 11 teams competing in this year’s VCT Pacific League: Paper Rex, DRX, T1, Gen.G, Global Esports, Zeta Division, Team Secret, RRQ, Detonation FocusMe, Talon Esports, and Bleed Esports.