How FrosT and a re-tooled roster made Global truly global

Just before joining TALON TALON Inactive Killua Tanate Teerasawad thyy Anupong Preamsak Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam primmie Papaphat Sriprapha at the end of 2023, following a forgettable year with FURIA FURIA Brazil Rank #8 nerve Michael Yerrow artzin Arthur Araujo eeiu Daniel Vucenovic koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio alym Torogul Baidyldaev as general manager, Hector " FrosT " Rosario thought his time in Valorant was done. Now, with a move to Pacific and success with TALON, he's reached a new high by bringing a struggling Global Esports Global Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #4 PatMen Patrick Mendoza UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) Kr1stal Savva Fedorov xavi8k Xavier Juan Autumn Kale Dunne team to the international stage.

Global Esports, travelling to Masters London.

For a coach who had already led a team to international tournaments as the underdog, doing so with Global Esports didn't have him jump out of his seat any more than most victories. What truly made him emotional was watching opposing coaches he respected show nothing but happiness for him reaching Masters London.

“For me, it was another day in the office, but noticing that alecks and Wendler were genuinely happy for me really hit me,” FrosT said. “Having that moment where the competition and the frustration around his team disappeared, just to congratulate us about the progression we made, that was when the emotions hit. I've competed in a lot of events in esports, so my focus is always Champs [or that equivalent], but that friendship, that reaction, never really happened before.”

Not only did Global reach its first international with FrosT at the helm, but the team did so by defeating a regional rival in Paper Rex. PRX finally earned their title at Masters Toronto with PatMen replacing longstanding controller mindfreak , so PatMen's move after to Global only brought more attention to a franchise that was mired in mediocrity.

Matchups between Global and PRX suddenly became must-watch games, often close series that ended in favor of PRX. PatMen, who FrosT dubbed as the frontrunner for Initiator of the Year, got his revenge on his former teammates by qualifying for London first. After defeating PRX 2-1, that put a spotlight on a monster Stage 1 for the flex player.

“PatMen is probably the biggest reason we have this success, and it's not just due to his carry potential,” FrosT said. “In a similar vein to primmie, that confidence that he provides is so important for the team. On TALON, they saw primmie as Thanos, and PatMen has that same effect for us. The rest of the team gains that buff ‘cause they know PatMen can do something to get the team back in the game, especially UdoTan and Autumn .”

During the group stage of Stage 1, PatMen finished as the second-highest non-Duelist player in overall match rating at 1.20, only below iZu from T1 with 1.28. His flexibility was key to FrosT's strategies of frequent composition changes and unique agent choices. PatMen played six different agents and three different roles in the group stage.

With his amazing start to Stage 1, PatMen instilled that confidence in the roster, so when his form took a slight dip in the playoffs, his skills as a caller and teammate shone.

“He helps midround and fills in the gaps for xavi8k , so he impacts the round in calling too, along with being an amazing player outside of his moments of carrying,” FrosT said. “He doesn't have to perform to win in that traditional sense, and I think our playoff run showed that. That impact outside of fragging is more important to our success than just breaking ACS records, as he did at Kickoff.”

Just like how PatMen is more than just a great mechanical player, FrosT himself is more than just a sound head coach. When FrosT first arrived in VCT Pacific, he knew exactly how he wanted to play strategically. His mentality wasn't going to change from the past; instead, he was going to double down, especially on what he thought was his last chance.

“In 2022, when I didn't get any job offers after 100T, a lot of the discussion there was that my prior experience didn't match up well with how esports was going,” FrosT said. “I revisited myself to check if their points were right, especially the more I heard those responses: that my CS experience wouldn't apply, that my DOTA experience wouldn't apply. TALON was my last shot in tier one, so I said ‘well, fuck it' and went all in on my ideas: comp changes, bigger compositional antis, plenty of things that others said were stupid. Even crws said I was insane at first, but when we reached Champs, he understood that when you don't have the best players in the world, you beat the best by confusing them.”

That mentality carried from TALON to Global, and despite moving to a different team with a different core group, his confidence in improving the team grew after understanding more of the players in Pacific.

“When I was at TALON in 2025, there was a chance for Autumn to replace Governor , and I couldn't convince him then to leave FPX and join us,” FrosT said. “After joining Global, it was easier for me to convince Autumn not to join a team in EMEA and join GE instead, which wasn't the case before. Being able to easily convince Autumn and xavi8k made the rest seamless.”

FrosT wasn't working from scratch after joining Global, but his first task was one that no other Global coaching staff managed to do: qualify for an international. The unique strategies that FrosT specialized in and used with TALON became a piece of Global's identity.

One of the biggest examples was using Deadlock more often than other teams to slow down Neon compositions, and another was using double or even triple Sentinel comps against Paper Rex, to mixed success. Yet, even if the individual strategies sometimes failed, those overarching ideas worked against teams like Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #5 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) , Rex Regum Qeon Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Rank #2 Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh , 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) – all teams that reached internationals. Despite all these wins that earned them a playoff spot in Stage 1, it was the loss to Kiwoom DRX Kiwoom DRX Korea Rank #4 Hermes Ahn Byeong-wook (안병욱) yong Kim Ho-yong (김호용) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) that kick-started the run that ended with a London slot.

“I think the KRX loss was interesting because we knew our opponents were extremely confident, and we still nearly won,” FrosT said. “We lost a ton of advantages and talked a lot about it afterward, about our confidence. Then, in that run where we beat Nongshim and RRQ, I'm not sure that run would have happened if not for those KRX and PRX losses. Xavi especially was great in that run, and in retrospect, he needed to get his ass kicked a little bit to lock in, to learn and improve.”

The Global Esports team prior to Masters London.

Global ended up as the third seed for VCT Pacific at Masters London, and FrosT was looking forward to two things on the day of the draw: which team he would face, and the earliest possible time he could face BABYBAY . For two people who met a long time ago and didn't get along at the start, their comments towards each other across social media have seen them build a friendship from Americas that continues now.

“I missed the chance to coach him, and I regret it a lot,” FrosT said. “Hearing that alecks mentioned on our podcast that Paper Rex took some inspiration from the old FaZe teams with BABYBAY made me think of what could've been. It also does kinda suck, as similar to Crws and FULL SENSE FULL SENSE Asia-Pacific Rank #6 Leviathan Thanyathon Nakmee Killua Tanate Teerasawad primmie Papaphat Sriprapha JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut , I don't want to be the reason why they don't have success. I want nothing more than to beat his ass, but I also just want to see BABYBAY in the finals because at least one of us will go home happy.”

As for the first confirmed global matchup for FrosT and Global, the team will face the second seed from Americas in LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN North America Rank #4 spike Rodrigo Lombardi blowz Guilherme Oliviera Neon Bruno Rodríguez Sato Eduardo Kenzo Nagahama Sato kiNgg Francisco Aravena on the second day. The matchup pits two different kinds of fresh faces against each other, with a LEV roster with four rookies looking to make their mark, while Global looks to make a name for themselves at the team's first international LAN. FrosT himself watched LEV play in those regional grand finals and is confident that Global can defeat them.

“I think it's a great matchup for us,” FrosT said. “I think LEV is the best mechanical team in Americas, but I also think Pacific is the best mechanical region. I think the teams we play on the regular are a lot stronger than LEV. If we can't beat LEV, I don't think we deserve to be in the [Masters London] playoffs.”