Team Secret captain eyes comeback in 2nd half of VCT Pacific

MANILA, Philippines — The country's lone representative in the Valorant Challenger's Tour (VCT)  Pacific, Team Secret, had a mixed run in the first half of the regional tournament's regular season currently ongoing at the Sangam Colosseum in Seoul, South Korea.

After a promising performance during Valorant's opening tournament for 2023, VCT LOCK//IN, Team Secret posted back-to-back victories against regional favorites Talon Esports of Thailand and Paper Rex of Singapore.

But the team’s “Tondo Gaming” was not enough as they suffered a two-match losing streak against South Korea's Gen.G Esports and Indonesia's RRQ, the latter having three Filipino players on their roster.

Ending the first half of the regular season with a 2-2 win-loss record, captain Jessie "JessieVash" Cuyco vowed to come back stronger in the last four weeks of the regular season of VCT Pacific.

"Babawi po. After winning [against] Paper Rex, parang naging confident kaming lahat. Feeling namin DRX na lang talaga yung magiging kalaban, nakalimutan na namin yung ibang team. Tapos ngayon sunod yung talo. Feeling ko naman mag-comeback kami sa mga susunod na weeks," Cuyco told Philstar.com after their recent defeat against RRQ.

It had been a pattern for the all-Filipino roster to lose their map of choice so far in all their previous matches, to which Cuyco shares that it was mainly due to their plan of strengthening their performance on other maps.

"Nagbabawas kami ng scrims sa maps na alam naming malalakas na kami. Pero siguro, doon kami naiiwan ng ‘di namin napapansin. Kasi pinapractice namin yung ibang maps kasi di namin nilalaro masyado. [Siguro] medyo, nalilimutan yung protocols and default, yung mga 1:1 pick-off na walang trade. [I think] yun yung mga kailangan namin ayusin," explained Cuyco.

Looking at their current standing, Cuyco believes it's too early to count Team Secret out and criticize their performance given their back-to-back losses.

He added, "For us ginagawa namin yung best namin pero minsan talaga natatalo sa duel. Parang kanina, yung mga first blood kasi important makuha pero di naman namin makuha yung tradeoff. Siguro ayun lang, na-off guard kami. Sa tournament, may moments talaga na mapipick-off kami na ‘di inaasahan. Sinasabi ko lang sa [team ko], unlucky lang today. May ganun [lang] talagang mga araw pero babawi tayo."

Team Secret hopes to secure their third win in their match against Japan's DetonatioN FocusMe at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 23, to boost their playoff chances.