The second week of action in VCT Pacific Kickoff wrapped up on Sunday with two of the competition's dark horses going up against each other and a grudge match dropping one Korean powerhouse to the lower bracket.

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) pulled off the 2-1 reverse sweep against 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 , while 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) bested DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Hermes Ahn Byeong-wook (안병욱) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) in two maps to survive in the middle bracket.

DetonatioN FocusMe downs Global Esports in duel of dark horses

Both DFM and Global had strong starts to their respective Kickoff campaigns, opening with wins in the first round but falling to the region's top-seeded teams. In a series that Global looked to wrap up quickly, DFM pulled off the reverse sweep, winning 2-1 despite a big fragging day from Global.

The series began on Global's pick of Breeze, a map that DFM had not played since 2024. The Global players stayed on agents they have been playing primarily through Kickoff so far, with Autumn on Yoru, UdoTan on Veto, and xavi8k on Astra as part of a double-orb smokes comp with Omen and Sova rounding out the comp. Meanwhile, DFM played with what could be regarded as a more meta comp, with Meiy on Jett while the rest of the squad was rounded out by Astra, Viper, Yoru, and Sova.

Starting on attack, DFM immediately had troubles, unable to fend off the Global retakes but, more importantly, unable to stop PatMen . The 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 Initiator found it easy on the map in his new role, juggling the Controller and secondary Duelist roles for Global. He played a pivotal role in his team entering halftime up 10-2, collecting 25 kills through the first 12 rounds of the map.

PatMen was unstoppable on Breeze.

DFM continued with the same level of dominance on attack, cruising to a 13-3 win. PatMen set VCT history on the map, finishing with an unreal 32/5 scoreline and a 516 ACS, the highest on a map in VCT history.

Though down in dominant fashion, DFM was not quite out. Its pick of Pearl welcomed upsets, as it did last week against Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #3 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) and last year against PRX. DFM got out to a fast start to roll some momentum early, seizing a 6-3 lead on attack. Meiy put on a vintage performance on, dropping 12 kills in the half while Caedye had 10 of his own. On the other side of the stage, Global fielded the same comp that it ran on Bind last week, with PatMen on Waylay to form a double-Duelist comp while Kr1stal was on Fade.

DFM held on to a narrow 7-5 lead entering halftime, and a pistol round win to start its defender side got the ball rolling. DFM used strong defensive principles help reach match point. Fueled by yatsuka 's Operator and Akame 's Odin, the squad held rock-solid crossfires and pulled off well-coordinated retakes to reach match point up 12-6. While a stretch of three straight Global rounds threatened a comeback, DFM closed out the map

Clean three kills from Caedye in mid doors helps DFM shut down the Global comeback.

They say all bangers end on Split, and this series looked to live up to that. DFM and Global fielded comps that were similar in principle, with DFM opting for the traditional Viper-Omen pairing with Yoru, Raze, and Fade. Meanwhile, Global added its own twist to that comp, with Astra replacing Omen, Autumn as the solo Duelist on Yoru, and UdoTan's Vyse instead of Raze.

On defense, DFM did well to shut down portions of the map, but faltered when Global was able to layer several pieces of utility to rush players anchoring. Once on attack, DFM flipped a pistol round win into a strong run in the half. While Global drew blood first on many occasions, it was caught in a few moments of questionable decision-making, resulting in several man-advantage situations going to waste. DFM seized those opportunities, five of them in fact, to reach match point up 12-5. Once again, a late surge from GE threatened a comeback of sorts, but DFM closed it out 13-8 to stay alive in the middle bracket.

PatMen's series-high 62-kill performance was not enough for Global, nor was Autumn's 52 kills. As a team, Global had 21 more kills than DFM did across three maps. Meiy led the way for DFM with his own 52 kills, while Caedye had 42.

T1 downs DRX for the first time in Pacific play

In another match against a team it is very familiar with, T1 downed DRX 2-0. In DRX, two T1 players went up against their former colors, with stax and BuZz having played for them before. Before this match, both teams survived their first matches in the lower round, with DRX defeating VARREL and T1 beating Gen.G.

The series opened on DRX's pick of Split, which it has now played in all three of its Kickoff matches. After trying out a Neon-Yoru double-Duelist comp in its opening match, DRX appeared to have settled on a double-Initiator comp with Skye and Tejo. Meanwhile, T1 stuck with its Raze-Yoru double-Duelist comp.

The map hosted a battle between HYUNMIN and BuZz, the two Duelist players who both played Raze on the map. T1 got off to a quick start, winning four of the first five rounds, forcing an early timeout from termi . Following the timeout, DRX did well to delay T1's attack, and entered halftime down just 7-5.

T1 enters round 10 with five Sheriffs and walks away with the win.

After switching sides, DRX fell victim to the clock on a number of occasions, too. While iZu 's Operator managed just three kills on the map, it had a stronger impact, shutting down long sightlines and often serving as the primary barrier to DRX's attacks.

After struggling to get going in T1's win over Gen.G, BuZz got off to a quick start, leading T1 a 13-8 win on Split with a team-high 25 kills, while HYUNMIN's 25 were ultimately not enough.

After stealing DRX's map pick, T1 entered its own pick of Bind. Again, both teams had near-mirror comps, with Brimstone, Viper, Fade, and Yoru the meta staples. DRX went with HYUNMIN on Raze, while T1 put BuZz on Waylay. DRX grabbed the pistol round to start the map, but an unsuccessful conversion on the would-be bonus round snowballed into a strong T1 run, resulting in the team picking up eight of the next nine rounds.

DRX had little to no answer for T1's defense, struggling to break it down and trudging along into an 8-4 halftime deficit. DRX picked up yet another pistol round to win its third through two maps and winning two more after failing to convert the would-be bonus round. While DRX put an Operator into Hermes 's hands early, he struggled to have the same impact that iZu had on it.

BuZz was the tip of the spear for T1 on both maps, with his Waylay on Bind especially spectacular.

BuZz led the way for T1's attack in a dominant way, with a quadra kill helping T1 cruise its way into the sunset and snap up a 13-8 map win and 2-0 series win. The win over DRX is T1's first in Pacific play and second ever after defeating them in the Masters Bangkok Swiss Stage last year. He had a game-high 44 kills and 1.49 rating, while his Duelist counterpart HYUNMIN had 40 and 1.15 in the loss.

Up next

DFM and T1 live to fight another day in the middle bracket, but will now go up against teams that have just dropped from the upper semifinals. DFM is tasked with handling FULL SENSE FULL SENSE Asia-Pacific Rank #7 Leviathan Thanyathon Nakmee Killua Tanate Teerasawad thyy Anupong Preamsak primmie Papaphat Sriprapha JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam and the ever-dangerous primmie , while T1 goes up against Paper Rex. With the loss, Global will play the winning team between 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 Gen.G, while DRX takes the better team between ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #10 Absol Kazuki Fujinoki SyouTa Shota Aoki SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe eKo Yeom Wang-ryong (염왕룡) Xdll Yuto Mizomori and Team Secret Team Secret Asia-Pacific Rank #171 kellyS Kelly Sedillo JessieVash Jessie Cuyco TenTen Kim Tae-young (김태영) Sylvan Go Young-sup (고영섭) BerserX Rizkie Adla Kusuma .

VCT Pacific Kickoff will continue with the following matches: