Philippine teams face tough challenge in Valorant APAC Challengers Playoffs

MANILA, Philippines — After weeks of intense Valorant match-ups, South Built Esports, NAOS Esports, Action PH have emerged as the top three teams who will be representing the Philippines in the coming Valorant Challengers Tour (VCT) APAC Playoffs this week.

During the first year of VCT, the Southeast Asian region saw about 10 to 16 teams vying for the top prize, with Team Secret conquering the region during the tournament's third stage. Unfortunately, Team Secret failed to participate in the Masters Berlin due to travel documentations but was able to participate in the year-end tournament Valorant Champions.

Replacing last year's Southeast Asia regional playoffs, the newly formed APAC region will see 20 teams from Asia Pacific competing for a prize pool of $150,000 and securing two slots to the Valorant Masters taking place in Reykjavik, Iceland next month.

The APAC Playoffs will kick off this week, March 10, with the bottom teams from each country's challenger series fighting to stay alive and move forward to the group stages. Group stages will follow the week with the Finals taking place at the end of March.

Action PH, which finished third during the Philippine leg of the challengers series, will hope to come out on top against Vietnam's Team Big BAAM, Thailand's Full Sense and Indonesia's ONIC Esports to be able to join fellow Philippines teams South Built Esports and NAOS Esports, which already have their group stages locked in.

NAOS Esports is grouped with the Thailand champions XERXIA, while Philippine champions South Built Esports will be facing up against India's Velocity Gaming who took the South Asia Valorant Crown and Hong Kong champions Oblivion Force.

All matches will be broadcasted via the Valorant Esports PH Facebook page.