The first big shock of VCT Pacific’s Kick-Off came with the retained promotion of Ascension 2025, taking down the newest superteam in T1 after a reverse sweep ending the series 2-1.
Map 1 took place on Spit, where T1 are the most comfortable playing the Double Duelist with BuZz taking the Raze and iZu taking the Yoru. Nongshim, this season, are leaning heavily into Dambi being a Neon 1 trick for them, with his Neon gameplay being one of the best in the world. They opted for a Yoru/ Neon composition with the standard Fade/ Viper/ Omen trio on both sides.
The first half of Split was a very 50/50 series with both teams going blow to blow ending the half at 6-6. BuZz on the Raze was the standout player on their defence half dropping 15 kills in just 12 rounds, able to control a lot of the map with his AWP allowing iZu to take space with his tp to fall back onto. The second half went the way of T1 nearly completely, where they were able to close out Split 13-9, showcasing what Double Duelist can do when set up especially well by stax on the Fade.
Haven was the chosen destination for map 2, with Nongshim firing back instantly after their loss on Split. Dambi was the centre of attention with Haven being Neon’s playground for many teams, putting Dambi on this agent on this map could only spell trouble for T1. The first half ended with Nongshim looking extremely comfortable on their attack side with a 8-4 end to the first 12.
The second half followed suit with Nongshim not dropping a single round on their defence, ending the series 13-4 and earning a map three where all would come down to Corrode with Nongshim looking fired up and T1 looking deflated.
Corrode started off, once again, extremely well for Nongshim RedForce on their attack side, leveraging Dambi whilst relying on several clutch rounds by Ivy to end their attack side 8-4. Given this boost of four rounds it seemed all too unlikely that T1 could come back from the deficit, and this rang true as the map ended 13-9 and a win in the favour of Nongshim RedForce.
Dambi deservedly took the MVP for this series with a whopping 55 kills across the three maps, cementing his Neon as one of the best in the world.
With this win, Nongshim RedForce will go on to face off against the winner of DRX/FULL SENSE in the Upper Round 3, meanwhile T1 take a trip down to the middle bracket where they will face off against a familiar foe, Gen.G.
Valorant Digest 
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