ZETA DIVISION triumph in Pacific LCQ grand final, qualify to Champions

ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #7 Laz Ushida Koji yuran Yushin Hato hiroronn Hiroki Yanai Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe have emerged as victors of the Pacific LCQ in a 3-1 grand final showing over Team Secret Team Secret Asia-Pacific Rank #7 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes BORKUM Jim Timbreza JessieVash Jessie Cuyco Jremy Jeremy Cabrera NDG Noel De Guia . Their victory qualified ZETA to Champions as the final Pacific representative as well as being the sole Japanese team in the event.

The match began with ZETA DIVISION's pick, Fracture. Opening up the series was a pistol win for Team Secret, followed by a thrifty for ZETA on Secret's buy round. After Secret took round four, ZETA followed it up with five consecutive rounds, bringing them up to seven. TS managed to take the final three rounds of their attack, trailing two rounds behind ZETA at 7-5 by the second half.

Halftime kicked off with a bang, as another multi-kill round by Dep converted to a 1v1 victory to give his team the second pistol, followed by the anti-eco. Team Secret followed by taking their buy round, forcing ZETA into a timeout at 9-6.

ZETA convincingly took round 16 to make it up to double digits, just barely trailing ahead of TS. Team Secret then took back the next four rounds in a row, managing to finally tie up the score at 10-10.

Fracture was eventually brought to overtime as a slew of rounds continued to go to both sides, but was swiftly ended by ZETA to take map one 14-12.

Team Secret brought map two to Ascent. ZETA were no strangers to Ascent, having taken a 21-19 victory against Rex Regum Qeon just days beforehand. TS started off by taking the first two rounds, fighting back with five rounds in a row going to ZETA. Secret then put an end to the gradually increasing momentum of ZETA, carving out a 6-6 half by round 12 with the help of a 1v2 by BORKUM in the final round of the half.

TS got off to a heated start on their defense, picking up five rounds to open up the half, while ZETA was initially only able to take Secret's bonus. Soon, TS was up to a 11-7 advantage early in the second half off the back of several successful retakes, eventually converting their defensive lead into a 13-9 victory.

Heading into map three, Split, change had come around for Team Secret with a standout composition, moving Jremy to Reyna and DubsteP to Raze.

By the end of the first half, those changes wouldn't look as pretty in execution.

ZETA opened up the map by taking six unanswered rounds before Team Secret were able to put themselves on the board, only being able to get their first round off the back of a timeout in round five.

Despite Secret getting their first, ZETA continued to stomp over their defense, quickly surging up to a 9-1 lead. By round 12, ZETA DIVISION held an insurmountable 10-2 lead. Secret were able to take five rounds on their attacking side before ZETA ultimately closed out the map, capping off Split 13-7 for ZETA.

Map four moved to Lotus, Secret's second pick. ZETA came into the map putting Laz on his signature Chamber for the second time in the series.

Immediately, ZETA got up to a 4-0 lead, however Secret were able to claw back three of their own to stop any attempts at an early stomp. Both teams took another two rounds off one another, but ZETA emerged on top by the end of the half, etching out a 7-5 lead.

ZETA were left unchallenged as they shifted over to their defense, with a third pistol victory to help go up 9-5. On their bonus, TENNN was able to take a 1v2 clutch to move their lead up to 10, and then 11.

Only on round 17 at 11-5 down was Team Secret finally able to respond back with an attack-side round, but the damage had already been done. ZETA convincingly took rounds 18 and 19, ending off Lotus 13-6.

ZETA DIVISION's qualification for Champions comes off the back of a heartbreaking failure to qualify for Masters: Tokyo during the Pacific League playoffs. With Champions now being on the horizon for ZETA, another chance awaits for them to rewrite their history.

“We've been practicing with our lives towards this win,” said crow. “I want to keep this feeling, and keep improving for Champions.”