The stage is set for playoffs across all three VCT leagues, with teams competing for just 10 spots at Masters Tokyo next month in the biggest VALORANT tournament this year so far. And today, Korea’s DRX became the first team from any VCT league to officially secure their spot at Masters Tokyo with a 2-1 victory over Team Secret.
Today’s result was just another example of DRX’s next-level performances this season. Though the team was speculated to be the best in the VCT Pacific League before the season began, this level of dominance was unprecedented.
But despite their undefeated record going into VCT Pacific’s superweek last week, an unlikely rival handed DRX their first loss: the Philippines’ Team Secret. And when the regular season was said and done, the playoff bracket had the two teams squaring up for a rematch, the winner of which would secure the first spot from VCT Pacific straight to Masters Tokyo in June.
Secret chose Haven as the first map of the day, which was no surprise as it was the map they have been playing very well on and also beat DRX on before.
As of late, Secret’s MVP has undoubtedly been their leader JessieVash. The captain and in-game leader of the team, he has a ton of experience and confidence in the roster. He has been coming back up to form in the last few weeks of VCT Pacific, especially during superweek. His leadership is so clear for his team, both in-game and out.
In contrast to the last time these two teams met on Haven just last week, DRX’s coach termi did use both of his team’s allotted timeouts. It was speculated by casters that termi was trying to train his team to make more decisions on the fly instead of using timeouts, but clearly securing the win today was more important.
A small thorn in DRX’s side has been their young duelist Foxy9, who, while fragging out and making new highlights every game, has been inconsistent. He looked better today, which is a step in the right direction.
Secret had the entire team contributing to what was eventually a 13-9 win for them on Haven. Invy and BORKUM had 17 and 18 assists, respectively, putting up impressive numbers.
Unfortunately for Secret, the next two maps of Split and Bind seemed like they were over in a flash. In classic DRX fashion, the team bounced back after losing the first map.
BuZz put up huge numbers on Split, ending the map with a 27/9 KDA on Raze. On Bind, DRX just out-stratted Secret at every turn. Secret also made the bold decision to sub out invy, one of their best players, in favore of lenne, who hasn’t yet played a match in the VCT Pacific League.
DRX won the match 2-1 and send Secret down to the lower bracket, where they will have to face Gen.G. DRX will move on to the upper bracket, but more importantly, they also become the first partnered team to secure their spot at Masters Tokyo.
While there are a few teams that are almost guaranteed a spot at Masters just because of how they have outperformed the others in their region, every team will still have to go through their region’s playoff bracket to secure their spot.
