The Pacific Stage 1 playoffs continued today with fierce battles between the four teams remaining in the lower bracket. With TALON TALON Asia-Pacific Rank #14 Killua Tanate Teerasawad thyy Anupong Preamsak Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam primmie Papaphat Sriprapha and BOOM Esports BOOM Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #5 dos9 Zhumagali Dastan Famouz Fikri Zaki Hamdani Shiro Hildegard Arnaldo NcSlasher Sheldon Andersen Chandra BerserX Rizkie Adla Kusuma eliminated, DRX DRX Korea Rank #1 MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) Estrella Park Gun (박건) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) and Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #2 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov have set themselves up for a classic heavyweight match next week for the final regional slot at Masters Toronto.

DRX sends TALON home 2-0, inches closer to Toronto

The first match saw DRX and TALON facing off for the first time in the 2025 season. DRX was coming off of a narrow 2-1 loss to Rex Regum Qeon Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Rank #4 Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh in the upper bracket, while TALON put away Nongshim RedForce Nongshim RedForce Korea Rank #3 Persia Yang Zi-on (양지온) Francis Kim Mu-bin (김무빈) margaret Kim Ji-woo (김지우) Dambi Lee Hyuk-kyu (이혁규) Ivy Park Sung-hyeon (박성현) 2-1 for a third time this year yesterday to send them home.

The series opened on TALON's pick of Icebox. After having lost on Icebox 13-4 to RRQ last week, DRX made a composition switch, moving Estrella from KAY/O to Harbor. However, it was MaKo and HYUNMIN who were the stars of the show on Viper and Jett, racking up kills and making things easy for DRX as they cruised to a 9-3 half on their attack side.

Any hopes of a TALON comeback were shut down in round 14 when they lost a Thrifty after winning the pistol, and DRX easily closed out Icebox 13-4. MaKo ended the map with a 17 kills to eight deaths and a 1.52 rating, with HYUNMIN following close behind with 16 kills to nine deaths and a 1.41 rating.

While Icebox was a stomp, Fracture was a slugfest, with many of the rounds coming down to the wire. DRX started with a 4-0 lead, but TALON found their footing with oppressive site executes and well-spaced entries from primmie on Waylay to net the Thai squad a 7-5 lead at the half.

Undeterred, DRX responded with oppressive executes of their own in the second half even despite dropping the second pistol, fighting all the way back to a 12-10 lead of their own. TALON managed to force overtime, but DRX won out crucial firefights to close out the map 14-12. MaKo once again topped the scoreboard with a 24/17/19 KDA on Brimstone to go +16 on the series.

With this win, DRX are now one win away from their second international qualification of the year, with only PRX standing in their way.

Paper Rex keeps the train moving, exacts revenge on BOOM

After a lackluster 2-3 group stage, including a loss being to BOOM, Paper Rex managed to eliminate Bangkok champions T1 T1 Korea Rank #4 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) Sylvan Go Young-sup (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) DH Kang Dong-ho (강동호) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) yesterday in a massive 2-1 upset. BOOM, on the other hand, struggled against Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #2 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) Ash Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) Suggest Seo Jae-young (서재영) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) in the upper bracket in a 2-0 loss despite being the only team in Pacific to achieve a perfect 5-0 record in the group stage.

The series kicked off on Lotus, the same map that Paper Rex crushed T1 on 13-2 yesterday. Once again, PRX was completely in control throughout Lotus, this time easily handling BOOM's slower style with reactive pushes around the map. Jinggg utterly dominated nearly every fight he took, dropping an unbelievable 21 kills in the first half alone on his signature Raze pick and leading PRX to a 9-3 lead. A second pistol win shut the coffin for BOOM as PRX went on to take the map 13-5, with Jinggg ending at 28 kills to eight deaths, 221 ADR, and an outsized 2.04 rating.

Fracture was the next map, where PRX continued to use the same Neon-Raze composition that they had against T1 despite losing 13-3 with it. That decision seemed to pay off as their attack found much more success this time around. The first half started off close, with BOOM at one point leading 4-3, but a vital Thrifty win for PRX in round 8 gave them the momentum they needed to run away with the rest of the half and end it 8-4.

The second half began with yet another pistol win for PRX, marking a 4-0 record for them over the course of the match. BOOM won their force buy and clawed it back to 9-7, but PRX stabilized after a timeout and closed out Fracture 12-8. From his utility to his clutches, PatMen was hugely impactful on Breach, leading the server with 19 kills to 11 deaths and a 1.43 rating.

Paper Rex now find themselves one win away from Masters Toronto after missing out on Bangkok earlier this year. For the eighth time in VCT Pacific and the twelfth time in the two teams' history, DRX and PRX will face off tomorrow with all hopes for returning to the global stage on the line.