Team Secret ends miracle run in VCT Pacific

MANILA, Philippines — Team Secret suffered a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of South Korean team Gen.G Esports, 1-2, ending their Valorant Challengers Tour Pacific League run at fifth to sixth place.

A few days before the end of the regular season, Team Secret reaching the playoffs seemed near impossible as the team was up against top seed DRX, which had yet to suffer any loss this season.

But an upset sweep kept Team Secret alive. With yet another sweep against Global Esports, Team Secret secured a fifth place finish in the regular season to set up a rematch with Japan's ZETA Division in their first playoffs match-up.

The Adobo Gang secured their revenge against ZETA, winning in overtime for both maps to move on to the Upper Bracket semifinals against DRX.

It was here that Team Secret seemed to have lost their momentum. The Filipino squad managed to secure the first map against DRX, but the Korean powerhouse did not want to lose yet again to the Filipinos. The Koreans dominated the next two maps to send Team Secret to the lower bracket against Gen.G Esports, who had defeated them 0-2 during the regular season.

Once again, Team Secret secured the first map but not wanting to be eliminated, Gen.G Esports forced a decider after taking a 10-2 lead. In the decider, Team Secret seemed to be on the brink of victory with a five-round lead, but Gen.G Esports managed to not only force an overtime but also eliminate Team Secret from the tournament with a 12-14 victory.

For coach Evan "Warbirds" Olzem, the reason behind Team Secret's inconsistent performance has been the team's issue from the very beginning: communication.

"Communication has been the key issue we've had in the team and today, we weren't communicating as we needed to be," Olzem told Philstar.com after they were eliminated from the tournament.

Citing an example, when Team Secret was ahead five rounds and the team was all over the map, one focused on holding the sight while the others weren't there to provide back-up.

"We weren't on the same page [today]. We were just all over the place. We weren't playing as one unit. That was the reason why we lost today and that's the reason why we had issues in the past," Olzem added.

Besides communication, Olzem plans to work on the three maps that seem to be a weakness for the team as they hope to secure the Last Chance Qualifiers' slot for Valorant Champions happening in Los Angeles this August

"We have three maps that we struggle with so we'll figure out those maps [plus] and work on communication, then we'll just go from there," said Olzem.