The second day of VCT Pacific Kickoff saw the upper bracket's top eight teams finalized, with Global Esports Global Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #12 PatMen Patrick Mendoza UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) Kr1stal Savva Fedorov xavi8k Xavier Juan Autumn Kale Dunne defeating VARREL VARREL Korea Rank #5 C1ndeR Ko Jae-hyuk (고재혁) Klaus Kim Min-hyuk (김민혁) XuNa Kim Tae-geon (김태건) oonzmlp Shin Sang-beom (신상범) Zexy Jang Suk-hyun (장석현) and DetonatioN FocusMe DetonatioN FocusMe Japan Rank #2 Meiy Ibuki Seki SSeeS Tomonori Okimura yatsuka Kazuya Ikeda Caedye Amon Mateus Okakura Akame Yu Gwang-hui (유광희) defeating Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #4 Lakia Kim Jong-min (김종민) ZynX Kim Dong-ha (김동하) Ash Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) .

Global Esports dominate newcomers VARREL

The first series of the day promised no shortage of intrigue, as it pitted a reformed Global Esports team against VARREL, who carried the core of the team that placed first at Pacific Ascension as SLT Seongnam SLT Seongnam Korea Rank #24 without dropping a single map. Entering the arena on Friday, the question surrounding VARREL was whether or not the team's eye-catching playstyle would translate to the VCT level.

VARREL claimed the opening pistol round of the series, but faltered soon after. The team gave up not just a thrifty, but let Global snowball four straight rounds to claim an early lead. Global wrapped up its attack side up 8-4, and after winning the opening pistol of its defense half, the multi-national squad proved to be too much.

UdoTan hunts down five to close out map one.

While the VARREL players still showed off their technical ability and flashes of heroics, Global seemed to have a significant advantage on the macro, gripping much better control of the map as a team.

On Global's map pick of Abyss, that trend continued as the team's new roles seemed to be more defined. Former Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov player PatMen worked as a secondary Controller, xavi8k the primary Controller, Autumn the main Duelist, and UdoTan was again on Veto, seemingly staying in the Sentinel role. Both teams settled into double-Controller comps with Astra for Abyss, with GE putting PatMen on Omen and VARREL's oonzmlp on Harbor. In addition, both teams had Veto, Sova, and Yoru.

To open the map, Global carried over its momentum from Split. Starting on defense, the team won the first five rounds of the series, but a timeout from coaching pair TK9 and Rain seemed to settle the GE rumble. By halftime, VARREL cut down the deficit to 7-5, but yet another pistol round lost meant VARREL had a mountain to climb on the scoreboard.

Despite the best efforts of Duelist player Zexy , who put up a map-high 28 kills on Abyss, VARREL could not weather the Global storm. At times, it looked as though the VARREL players were disconnected, forced to take on disadvantageous duels while Global moved as one team. UdoTan had a match-high 42 kills in the series, while in-game leader xavi8k tallied on an additional 40.

GE will move on to play Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov in the upper quarterfinals, while VARREL slips to the middle roster.

Kickoff upset kings DFM defeat Gen.G

One of the biggest stories surrounding Gen.G over the offseason was how it would move on from its longtime IGL Munchkin , who now suits up for T1 T1 Korea Rank #2 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) . An added fold was the internal role switch with the players; Karon , most iconic for his Omen, moved to the Sentinel role, while Initiator player Ash picked up the Controller role. DFM had intrigue of its own, switching out gyen and Jinboong for RIDDLE ORDER RIDDLE ORDER Japan Rank #3 JoXJo Cho Byung-yeon (조병연) Minty Daiki Kato Seoldam Park Sang-min (박상민) gyen Koki Nakamura Luca standouts Caedye and yatsuka .

The series opened on Gen.G's pick of Abyss. Both teams opted for mirror comps, with the Waylay-Yoru pairing complemented by Astra, Sova, and Veto. DFM, starting on defense, had its foot on the gas. Proactive play saw the team take space across all three fronts on the map, welcoming pressure even if it meant sacrificing presence elsewhere.

The early cat-and-mouse game was won by DFM, who claimed an early 4-1 lead. The deficit forced an early timeout from head coach solo . DFM kept Gen.G at arm's length, proving to be able not just to go blow for blow with the Tigers, but also play its own macro game proficiently. The Japanese side's early aggression put Gen.G on the back foot, often requiring some heroics from the likes of Karon. By halftime, DFM held a 7-5 lead.

Gen.G looked poised to start the second half on the right foot with a pistol round win, but a well-executed anti-eco helped DFM parlay some momentum into an 11-6 lead. While Gen.G looked like a shell of its former self on Abyss, DFM was flying. Despite a quieter performance from Meiy , who has been prone to having breakout performances on Abyss, DFM prevailed. The star Duelist had just 11 kills on the map, while Caedye had a map-high 24 kills to lead the way.

DFM's map pick of Pearl opened similarly to how Abyss did. The map is one that should bring fond memories for DFM. At last year's Kickoff, the Japanese squad upset Paper Rex 2-0 in the lower bracket to eliminate the giants from the event. This year, DFM looked to clinch a signature upset once again.

Starting on attack, DFM seized yet another early lead, going up 4-1 again. Gen.G again punched back to make things close, easing to a 5-4 deficit while the likes of t3xture started heating up. Despite Meiy getting off to a hotter start, Gen.G entered halftime with a 7-5 lead, winning the final four rounds of the half in the process.

Once again, Gen.G struggled to start the half, being held at a 9-9 standstill with DFM by the time its last timeout was called. Despite the timeout, Gen.G had trouble working through its struggles. While its defense on Pearl was solid, Gen.G looked disorganized on attack, oftentimes looking lost and not on the same page. While Gen.G looked to claw back, struggles to open halves ultimately doomed the team to a 13-10 loss on the map and a 2-0 loss in the series.

DFM ends Pearl the way it played most of its defender half: Clean, coordinated, and sharp.

Meiy's impressive Pearl helped him top the kills leaderboard with 42 in the series, but rookie player Caedye was perhaps the most impressive player, logging a team-high 1.20 rating while Ash's 1.22 was not enough in the losing effort.

DFM will move on to play 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 , while Gen.G moves to the middle bracket following its first-ever loss to a Japanese team.

Up Next

VCT Pacific Kickoff will continue with the following matches: