It’s going to be a fierce fight to get to the first Masters event in Southeast Asia.
A new year means a new competitive Valorant season, bringing with it a new format and new teams to the VCT Pacific 2025 Kickoff tournament. Starting January 18, 12 teams will be battling across 12 days to see who will make it to Masters Bangkok.
This year’s tournament will have all 12 teams going straight into a double-elimination bracket. The four teams that qualified for Champions 2024 — DRX, Gen.G Esports, Paper Rex, and Talon — are seeded directly to the upper bracket quarterfinals while the rest are paired via random draw.

From there, all teams will face off in best-of-three matches with the lower bracket and grand finals being a best-of-five. Those last two matches are important, however, as the top two teams will qualify for Masters Bangkok later this February.
Two new teams are also making their debut in the VCT Pacific 2025 Kickoff. Noongshim RedForce are bringing another powerful all-South Korean team to the Pacific. Then there’s BOOM Esports who’re bringing another iconic Indonesian organization into the mix. It’ll be interesting to see how these wildcards will do in an already hyper-competitive scene.
Teams to Watch Out For
Champions 2024 was rough for the Pacific as only DRX were able to make it out of the group stage. Even then, they had an early exit in the lower bracket quarterfinals. This year they’ve refined their roster in hopes of making a deeper run in international tournaments.
Paper Rex and Talon are also ones to watch as both teams are keeping last year’s roster intact. Will more time building synergy together be the key to winning this tournament?

Team Secret is hoping that’s the case as they’re keeping their roster together as well. The all-Pinoy team has had middling performances in the last few VCT Pacific splits but their year has started rather poorly with a disappointing 13th place finish at the APAC Predator League 2025.
With the VCT Pacific 2025 Kickoff tournament starting in just a few days, the team needs to find their groove. The competition is looking really fierce this year and only the best will earn those tickets to Masters Bangkok.
Banner photo from Valorant Champions Tour Pacific.