Pacific champion Global Esports saw its Valorant Champions Shanghai campaign cut short in the group stage, leaving Paper Rex’s Adrian ‘invy’ Reyes as the lone Filipino player moving on to the playoffs.
Global Esports, which entered the tournament as Pacific’s top seed after winning VCT Pacific Stage 2, bowed out following a 0-2 loss to Loud in their Group B decider. GE earlier fell to Team Vitality, 1-2, before sweeping EDward Gaming, 2-0, to stay alive.
The result continued a rough tournament for some of Shanghai’s top seeds, with three of the four Stage 2 champions suffering a group-stage exit: Global Esports of Pacific, Tyloo of China and Karmine Corp of EMEA. Only America champion 100 Thieves manage to qualify to the playoffs.
Still, Xavier ‘xavi8k’ Juan was proud of what Global Esports accomplished in a breakthrough season.
‘I’m proud that we even made Champs, made it this far. It was a long year, a year of firsts that we did so much this year. It’s been a good journey. It took me five years to go Tier 1, and then my first year here, we qualified for all these events. So if you have a goal or a dream, just believe in yourself and keep on going,’ said Juan.
For xavi8k, his first year at the Tier 1 level also brought experiences beyond the server.
‘The whole year, it’s been fun living in Korea away from home with these five guys and all the coaching staff. It’s like a life experience I’ll never forget,’ added Juan.
Head Daniel “Platoon” Zhou coach Platoon, meanwhile, took pride in the work the team put in to turn its season around after struggling at the beginning of Stage 2.
‘I’m most proud of just how much work they put in. I think at the start of Stage 2, we were far, we might have been one of the worst teams, if I’m going to be honest, at the start of Stage 2. You guys don’t know the amount of hours we put in. We had no break until we even made it to the playoffs. We literally had no break days. So it was incredible how much work they put in to turn around the state that our team was in from Stage 2. So I’m just incredibly proud that everyone stayed so locked in for so long, maybe ran out of steam a little bit towards the end. But no matter what, I’m proud of how much all of us put in, including, again, the managers and Fields who are here with us,’ said Zhou.
Global Esports’ exit also ended the Champions runs of fellow Filipinos Patrick ‘PatMen’ Mendoza and assistant coach Derren ‘Aimix’ dela Cruz, who joined the squad on site after visa issues kept him out of its opening match.
Meanwhile, Reyes and Paper Rex went unbeaten in Group C, scoring identical 2-1 victories over Team Liquid and G2 Esports to advance as the group’s top seed.
They hope to keep their win streak alive as they face Loud on Wednesday, October 7, at 8 p.m.