After impactful matches yesterday in the VCT Pacific League that saw talented teams get pushed to their limits, everyone came into Sunday expecting both series to be a breeze. But India’s Global Esports had other ideas.
Global Esports has been struggling so far in 2023, and their hodge-podge roster had many wondering how they would make it work. Now the team is pushed to the brink of elimination from this stage of the VCT, and they need to win all of their remaining regular-season matches to have a chance at Masters Tokyo in June.
Today they faced off against one of their toughest opponents, Korea’s Gen.G Esports, who have mostly established themselves as the second-best team in the Pacific League behind DRX. To everyone’s surprise, Global swiftly beat Gen.G 2-0 today.
The potential of Global’s roster has never been in question. Each player has shown amazing skill, but there was speculation regarding how well they might play as a unit.
Today, two of these players, known to both have an incredibly high skill ceiling, finally put the pieces together—not just individually, but also with their teammates sitting next to them on stage. In what has likely been the biggest upset of the VCT Pacific League so far, AYRIN and SkRossi finally played up to their potential.
The teams started on Pearl with a pistol round win from Global, but Gen.G quickly took the next two rounds to avoid starting off completely on the wrong foot. Despite a few blunders, the half mostly went in Gen.G’s favor, and they finished up 7-5 before switching sides.
On their attack, Global turned up the heat.
Particularly impactful was AYRIN, who was playing KAY/O for the first time. AYRIN was formerly known for his performance with XSET, a North American team considered one of the best in the region at the end of last year. As XSET did not get a franchising spot, their roster scattered, with AYRIN ending up in Seoul in the Pacific League.
He has transitioned into a leadership role for Global, but despite being known as a strong player, he hasn’t been able to showcase his talent so far in 2023. North American fans know AYRIN, and they know he is a talented player, but certain mistakes have been building up that have left his team sitting at the bottom of VCT Pacific.
Aside from AYRIN’s struggles, another key element of the Global roster has been missing, and that is SkRossi.
Known as a fiery Jett specialist, SkRossi had several logistical issues preventing him from playing onstage in Seoul with his team for the first few weeks of league play. Now that he’s back, his presence is certainly being felt.
SkRossi would end up with a 23/16 KDA on Pearl, Global winning the map 13-8.
Analysts had predicted that this match could come down to a Jett battle between SkRossi and Gen.G’s Meteor, but while Meteor had some great moments, he wasn’t near the overall consistency of SkRossi today. Overall Gen.G just looked incredibly flat today compared to how they’ve been playing so far in 2023.
Though Lotus started in a similarly even fashion, AYRIN and SkRossi continued to fire on all cylinders.
He would end the map with a 331 average combat score.
Gen.G was just never able to tane SkRossi or his team once they got going, and AYRIN looked the most confident he’s looked in the VCT this year so far.
After waiting for Global to find their form, the team embraced on stage after winning Pearl 13-8 and the match 2-0 in a surprising upset.
Global will continue working toward a chance at playoffs next week when they face Rex Regum Qeon, a team performing similarly. They will go head-to-head on May 7 at 4am CT.
