Action in VCT Pacific Kickoff continued on Saturday, with both series going the distance. DRX DRX Korea Rank #5 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) added a twist to its agent pool to will its way to a 2-1 win over ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #11 Absol Kazuki Fujinoki SyouTa Shota Aoki SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe eKo Yeom Wang-ryong (염왕룡) Xdll Yuto Mizomori , while Global Esports Global Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #11 PatMen Patrick Mendoza UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) Kr1stal Savva Fedorov xavi8k Xavier Juan Autumn Kale Dunne narrowly captured a win over 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) in a blockbuster series that was decided by just two rounds by its end.

Here's a look at how both series played out:

DRX comes back from down 8-2 to eliminate ZETA DIVISION

While ZETA DIVISION was one of the first teams sent into the lower bracket, DRX was sent down after falling to rivals 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) . ZETA showed moments of shakiness in its 2-1 win over Team Secret Team Secret Asia-Pacific Rank #186 kellyS Kelly Sedillo JessieVash Jessie Cuyco TenTen Kim Tae-young (김태영) Sylvan Go Young-sup (고영섭) BerserX Rizkie Adla Kusuma to begin play in the lowers, but put up a good fight against stronger opposition in DRX.

The series began on ZETA's pick of Haven. Both teams deployed a Cypher on the map, and while ZETA went with a more meta double-Duelist pairing of Neon and Yoru, DRX sparked some surprise with its agent comp. On Haven, which was one of the maps that DRX popularized its "mosquito comp" on at Champions Paris last year, DRX went with a unique comp with Breach and Tejo with HYUNMIN on Waylay as the solo Duelist.

Starting on attack, DRX overwhelmed the defending ZETA. With BeYN 's Breach utility and free1ng 's Tejo utility opened avenues for the likes of HYUNMIN to fry, leading to a 9-3 halftime advantage. On the attack-sided map, ZETA did find some momentum to start the second half. A pistol round rolled on into a bonus round conversion for ZETA, but a round loss against five pistols meant ZETA lost its chance to snowball into a large economy. DRX closed out the map in the next four rounds, with MaKo logging yet another prime performance in his post-IGL era with a joint-high 19 kills.

The series moved to DRX's pick of Bind, which has been a staple in DRX's map pool over the past calendar year. ZETA, just two days before, lost on Bind 13-4 to Team Secret, allowing DRX to counter against it. DRX, seemingly in an attempt to be unpredictable, made yet another change to its comp. While Viper and Brimstone sparked no surprises, DRX moved from its double-Duelist comp in favor of another solo Waylay, double-Initiator look, with KAY/O and Tejo.

ZETA opened the map with a level of dominance it struggled to find on Haven, winning six of the first seven rounds of the map to put DRX on the back foot. DRX struggled to cope with the pace of ZETA's attack, led by the Duelist pairing of eKo and Absol , who finished the half with 12 and 10 kills apiece, entered halftime up 8-4.

Xdll isn't called the clutch machine for nothing.

ZETA moved quickly to sweep the pistol rounds on the map in the second half, opening its defense half with four straight rounds to reach match point. While DRX made an effort to come back, three more rounds were as much as it could do, as ZETA went on to steal its opponents' pick 13-7.

The decider map of Split was one of the first maps that DRX moved to adjust its comps on earlier in the tournament, and head coach termi continued to add more folds to the comp, replacing Skye with Breach and using Waylay as the lone Duelist once more. ZETA won its third straight pistol round of the series to open the map, and used that momentum to snowball an early 4-0 lead. DRX managed to claw back a few rounds, but ZETA rolled forward with its double-Duelist comp. DRX looked properly down and out, 8-2 down, but closed out the first half with two straight wins thanks to some heroics from MaKo and HYUNMIN.

DRX started its attack side with its first pistol round win since Haven, and, as it did on Haven, used the strengths of its comp to overwhelm ZETA. The pace let DRX stomp down control over sites for executions and rely on its post-plant utility to shut ZETA out. Just like Haven, ZETA struggled to cope with the attacking Breach, and DRX cruised to a 13-8 win.

A free1ng Armageddon was the cherry on top of a stellar attacking side for DRX.

In DRX's new solo Waylay approach, HYUNMIN was stellar in his role as the tip of DRX's attacking spear. His 53 kills were the highest in the lobby, while in-game leader BeYN excelled with Breach, a central agent in his play for the day, as he had 45 of his own.

UdoTan and Autumn will Global Esports to 2-1 win over Gen.G

In Global Esports and Gen.G, two sides with two very different Kickoffs went head-to-head for the right to survive. After opening the event with a dominant win over VARREL VARREL Japan Rank #2 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 testing Stage 2 champions 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 a three-map series, Global became one of the event's dark horses. Meanwhile, Gen.G's Kickoff has been marred with disappointment. An opening round loss to DetonatioN FocusMe DetonatioN FocusMe Japan Rank #4 Meiy Ibuki Seki SSeeS Tomonori Okimura yatsuka Kazuya Ikeda Caedye Amon Mateus Okakura Akame Yu Gwang-hui (유광희) and a loss in the middle bracket to T1 delayed the former Pacific powerhouses' first win of the season until the lower bracket, where it narrowly beat VARREL in three maps.

The series opened on Gen.G's pick of Breeze. The map was one of the team's best in its trophy-laden 2024 season, and in 2026, it again was one of the team's strongest maps. Play began with a dominant first half from Gen.G, which saw the Korean squad break a Global pistol for an anti-eco as part of a 9-3 defense half.

No ace for you! t3xture , t3xture, t3xture, t3xture, Karon .

After the teams switched sides, the defender-sided trend continued. Global claimed its second pistol of the series, and round after round began chipping away at Gen.G's lead. Gen.G reached map point with a one-round cushion, but the game was sent to overtime soon after. The teams exchanged defense rounds for three straight rounds, but a fast, in-your-face Gen.G attack round left five Gen.G players still standing, giving the Korean squad a narrow win on its map pick at 15-13.

The series moved to Global's pick of Abyss, a map that it has won twice before this season, and looked clean on. Gen.G threatened to put that record to rest, opening the map on attack and winning the first four rounds with fast-paced executions. Global responded with confidence, bouncing back to win seven of the next eight rounds to enter halftime with an advantage.

Global's attack side provided an interesting clash in philosophies, as Global performed its site executions with relative ease, but struggled to maintain control over mid, where Gen.G used a forward-footed approach to take space. After suffering a slow map one, xavi8k bounced back in a big way, playing a pivotal role in the team reaching match point. Gen.G stormed back to get to within one round, but Global closed out the map flawlessly, winning 13-11.

The decider map of Haven saw Gen.G stick with its guns, playing Jett-Yoru with Sova, Omen, and Cypher. Meanwhile, Global adjusted its team comp, moving away from UdoTan on Chamber and placing him on his now-iconic pick of Veto, while maintaining its unique double-Initiator approach with PatMen on Skye and Kr1stal on Sova.

Early on, the map was Autumn 's. On Jett instead of his usual Yoru, he collected an ace in the pistol round, building up his economy early and allowing him to fall back on his Blade Storm to save for an Operator early. After getting out to an early 7-2 lead, Gen.G went on a run of three straight round wins to end the half, flipping onto its attack side down just 7-5.

A pivotal pistol round fell Global's way to open the second half, giving them a 5-1 lead in pistol rounds in the series. Another quick start to the second half saw Autumn pick up a 4K in the anti-eco, again starting the half with heaps of momentum. Gen.G shut down a would-be bonus to win three straight and threaten a comeback, but Global did well to keep Gen.G at bay.

With the way he began the map, Autumn refused to let Haven slip away. With the way UdoTan began the series, he refused to let it slip away, too. On Haven as a whole, Global went 15-9 in first duels, a trend that was central in the team's dominance. Gen.G had real momentum and the economy on its side heading into a round that it was down 12-11, but the ultimates being on deck for Global spelled doom for the Tigers.

xavi8k's 4K was the exclamation mark on the series for Global.

UdoTan finished with the joint-highest rating of any player in the server with 1.20, and had the second-highest kill count at 70. The title of kills leader belonged to his teammate Autumn, whose 71 paced the entire lobby. For Gen.G, Karon's 1.20 rating and 66 kills led the way, while ZynX showed flashes of brilliance with 66 kills of his own.

Up next

DRX and Global Esports will move on to face the lower bracket's newest additions. Both teams will be met with revenge-match opportunities from the upper battle, with DRX up against FULL SENSE FULL SENSE Asia-Pacific Rank #6 Leviathan Thanyathon Nakmee Killua Tanate Teerasawad thyy Anupong Preamsak primmie Papaphat Sriprapha JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam and Global tasked with PRX.

VCT Pacific Kickoff will continue with the following matches: