Filipinos see contrasting results in VCT Pacific Stage 1

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino Valorant players ended up with mixed results in the opening weekend of the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT)-Pacific Stage 1 in Seoul, South Korea.

Filipino-laden Global Esports, featuring three Filipinos in their starting roster — namely Federico "Papi" Evangelista, Kelly "kellyS" Sedillo and Mark "patrickWHO" Musni — started their campaign on a high note with a sweep of a previously hot Japanese team DFM (DetonatioN FocusMe).

The match saw the debut of Musni, who had to miss the VCT Pacific Kickoff event at the start of the year due to travel document woes. Though just in his first match, Musni has made an impact with the team.

"With Mark in our team, we become very explosive at getting the first kills and we also become a little less disciplined at holding the advantage. During the timeout, we reminded the team to not be too hungry to end the map, just play every round like a usual round and not as the last round,” said Global coach Donnie "Elevated" Chell.

Meanwhile, an all-Filipino Team Secret looked to finally get out of its losing slump as it took the first map in their series against Talon Esports, only for the Thai-team to punish the Adobo Gang in Fracture and complete the reverse sweep in Haven.

For Team Secret coach Ji "meow" Dong-jun, the biggest hurdle for Team Secret is overcoming little mistakes.

"We have very good players here. It just depends on me on how these guys can play. We prepared a lot for [Talon]. It's really just about minimizing our mistakes." said Dong-jun.

Team Secret will open Week 2 of the tournament against Japan's ZETA Division on March 29 at 4 p.m., while Global Esports will close out the week against Indonesia's BOOM Esports on March 31 at 7 p.m.