In the middle bracket final of VCT Pacific 2026 Kickoff, 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) swept Rex Regum Qeon Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Rank #5 Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh 3-0 to earn the team the second regional slot at Masters Santiago. This also means that RRQ is now in a tough position, playing its third straight best-of-five in the lower finals after losing to both T1 and Nongshim RedForce Nongshim RedForce Korea Rank #1 Xross Jeonghwan (정환) Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민) Francis Kim Mu-bin (김무빈) Dambi Lee Hyuk-kyu (이혁규) Ivy Park Sung-hyeon (박성현) .

The series began with the RRQ map pick of Pearl, with both teams running solo Neon comps with different choices of Sentinel. The start from T1 was near perfect, as the team won the pistol and converted the bonus despite a sneaky knife kill from xffero .

xffero lands a knife kill on Meteor to start the series.

BuZz , iZu , and stax were all in good form as T1 ran away to a 9-3 lead at the half. After T1 won the second pistol, it was only a matter of time, as T1 eventually ended the map 13-7 to take the series lead on its opponents' map pick.

Breeze was even more dominant for T1, who ran double-Duelist and let iZu run amok on RRQ. T1 once again won pistol but was unable to convert the bonus round. Even after that, T1 stormed to a 10-2 lead on the defense half, and won the second pistol and bonus to finish the map 13-2.

That meant the comeback for RRQ needed to begin on Abyss, and it was the closest map of the series by far. Both teams ran double-Duelist with Yoru and Waylay, and the map began with another ideal start from T1. Converting the first pistol and bonus, T1 earned a 4-0 lead, which was once again extended to a 9-3 lead at the half.

T1 won the second pistol, but RRQ converted a big eco win to change the momentum. Monyet and Kushy led the team to eight round wins in a row, taking the lead late on Abyss. T1 forced the map to overtime, where both teams traded rounds five times. In the sixth overtime, stax won a clutch followed by a BuZz defuse sneaking through, leading to a 19-17 map win and a series sweep.

stax wins an important clutch in overtime against RRQ.

With this win, T1 has qualified for Masters Santiago as the second seed from VCT Pacific. RRQ moves down to the lower bracket finals and will face 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 another best-of-five to see which team is the final one to make it to Chile.