Team Secret secures double wins in VCT Pacific Stage 2 opener

MANILA, Philippines – It was a promising start for Team Secret's new roster as the team started Stage 2 of the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Pacific with wins over Bleed Esports and Global Esports, 2-1 and 2-0, respectively, over the weekend.

The new Adobo Gang, with the addition of former RRQ player James “2GE” Goopio and former Oasis Gaming player Brheyanne "Wild0reoo" Christ Reyes, and headed by new coach Tim "dummy" Olson, saw a close match-up with Bleed Esports. They wasted a 10-1 lead as their opponents took the opening map, but Team Secret managed to turn the tide on their map pick of Sunset to force a decider on Split to secure the match, 2-1.

Against Global Esports, Team Secret once again took an early lead, 11-1, with Global Esports taking five consecutive rounds to try to reverse the odds. But Team Secret had just enough power to close out the map at 13-8. In Ascent, Global Esports had the lead at the half, but a three-consecutive-round win thanks to the performance of Reyes saw them close out the map to take their second win of the weekend at 2-0.

Speaking to the media after each of the matches, Olson lamented the team’s tendency wasted big leads in first maps.

"I think we have too much fun when we're in a big lead. I think there were just a few small issues with the game plan," said Olson.

Though that may be the case, Olson is happy at the gameplay of all the players and moving forward, he will focus on cleaning up the overall playstyle of the team.

He adds, "I was just thinking to myself, how like, you know, the team is playing great. Everyone's playing individually great. The comms are good. We're adjusting. I don't know if anyone even noticed, but sometimes I was milking timeouts for a long time, like maybe people expected one earlier, but it's because as much as I could call time out. What's even the point? I hear them solving it in real time. Sure I'm the head coach but the five players on the team are just as smart, if not smarter, at knowing the game. So it was like it was really nice to see. [It] makes my job easy, just to watch problems unfold and see [the players] solve them in real time."

Team Secret will next face T1 on Monday, June 24, at 6 p.m. (Manila time).