The 2026 VCT Pacific competitive season started on January 22nd. 12 teams from the Pacific region will face off until mid-February, but which of these teams has the best odds of being named champions of VCT Pacific Kickoff, and which teams should the fans keep their eyes on during this VALORANT tournament?
The VCT Pacific teams are fighting for the three spots at the upcoming VALORANT Masters Santiago 2026 and Championship Points. While three teams will qualify for VALORANT Masters Santiago 2026, only one team will be crowned as the champion of VCT Pacific Kickoff 2026.
Event overview
| Event | 2026 VCT Pacific Kickoff 2026 |
| Start date | January 22, 2026 |
| End date | February 15, 2026 |
| Reward | Qualification for VALORANT Masters Santiago (three spots)
Prize money to be announced
10 Championship points up for grabs |
| Teams | 12 |
| Venues | Sangam Colosseum, Seoul & Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam |
VCT Pacific Kickoff 2026 odds today
No odds available.
The bookmaker isn’t offering odds for this tournament, or it has already ended.
Odds are provided by third parties for informational purposes only and are subject to fluctuation.
Image: VALORANT/Riot Games
The 2026 VCT Pacific Kickoff starts on January 22, 2026, at 3:00 am EST / 9:30 am CET.
Triple Bracket Playoffs Stage
- The 12 VCT Pacific teams will play in a
triple-bracket format: Upper, Middle and Lower.
- Teams will need to lose three matches to be eliminated.
- Teams that qualified for VALORANT Champions 2025 will receive a bye to Upper Bracket Round Two.
- All matches, excluding upper finals, middle finals, and lower finals, will be a best-of-three.
- The upper finals, middle finals, and lower finals will be a best-of-five series.
- The Champion of VCT Pacific Kickoff will receive four Championship points.
- The runner-up of VCT Pacific Kickoff will receive three Championship points.
- The team that finishes in 3rd place during VCT Pacific Kickoff will receive two Championship points, while the 4th-place team will receive one Championship point.
- The top three teams will qualify for VALORANT Masters Santiago, Chile.
Betting tips: Event favorites and teams to watch
Image: VALORANT/Riot Games
Paper Rex
If we don’t include Paper Rex on our list, we know there will be a riot. This team has proven time and time again why they are one of the
best VALORANT teams
in the Pacific.
- The 2025 season saw Paper Rex won their first international VALORANT tournament:
VCT Masters Toronto 2025. During that tournament, we saw the team play at its best.
- Following Masters Toronto, Paper Rex finished 4th during VALORANT X EWC 2025 & VALORANT Champions 2025.
- In the regional league VCT Pacific, they ended the year as Champions of VCT Pacific Stage Two. Following the VCT 2025 season, both Mindfreak and Patman announced their departure from the org.
- To fill that gap, they added
Adrian “invy” Jiggs Reyes
from Team Secret to their roster.
- The first tournament we got a chance to see the new team play together was the Valorant Radiant International Invitational. During this tournament at Fuzhou, China, they became the champions of the tournament. Paper Rex played the most matches during the tournament as they completed the comeback from the group stage.
It won’t be wrong to believe why many believe that Paper Rex are the favorites to become the top seed from VCT Pacific at VALORANT Masters Santiago.
Image via Paper Rex on X (@pprxteam)
T1
The second team on our list of teams to watch out for is T1, one of the most widely-known esports orgs and a
Valorant betting
favorite.
- During the VCT 2025 season, they were the
champions of VALORANT Masters Bangkok. Since that tournament, the team hasn’t performed the best for the remainder of the season. During the VALORANT Esports off-season, they became the champions of the SOOP VALORANT League 2025.
- The major factor going in favor of this team is that
they haven’t made any changes to their roster
other than their coach.
- They have been able to retain all the core players that won VALORANT Masters Bangkok. The T1 academy coach,
Kim “KDG” Dong-gun, was promoted as the head coach for T1.
- The other addition to their roster is the return of
Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom, the former IGL of Gen G. He was a part of T1 during the VCT 2023 season.
- The signing of Munchkin to the T1 roster only makes them stronger and in contention to qualify for the VALORANT Masters Santiago.
DRX
The third VCT Pacific team fans must keep an eye on is the reigning VCT Pacific Kickoff champions:
DRX.
- In the VCT 2025 season, the team consisted of four rookie players alongside
MaKo. This team then went on to become champions of VCT Pacific Kickoff 2025. During VALORANT Masters Bangkok, they finished in 4th place. They bounced back by becoming the champions of the Hero Esports Asian Champions League 2025 that took place in Shanghai.
- At the VALORANT X EWC 2025 tournament, the team finished in 9th place and then made a push to 5th place at VCT Pacific Stage Two. Due to finishing 5th, DRX
secured enough Championship points to qualify for VALORANT Champions 2025, at which DRX finished in 3rd place.
- Prior to the start of the VCT 2026 season,
Cho “Flashback” Min-hyuk
announced his retirement from VALORANT Esports. This came as a shock to all VCT Pacific fans. Due to his retirement, DRX promoted
Kim “Flicker” Tae-hee
from their academy roster to their main roster. It will be interesting to see how Flicker adjusts to his new teammates and fills the void left by Flashback. Will his additional be enough for DRX to become the top seed from VCT Pacific Kickoff? Only time will tell.
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Global Esports
One team that has time and time again not lived up to expectations is
Global Esports.
- Since their first season at VCT 2023, the organization from India hasn’t been on a good run of form.
- They have failed to qualify for any international VALORANT tournaments to date. Each year, we have seen the organization field a new roster and let go of some incredible talent.
In the 2023 season, they had the likes of
t3xture
and
Monyet
on their roster. They went on to become champions with Gen.G and RRQ, respectively, after leaving Global Esports. This season, it looks different for the org:
- They have been able to retain the likes of
Kr1stal
and
UdoTan
from their 2025 roster.
- They have signed the likes of
Kale “Autumn” Dunne,
Xavier “xavi8k” Juan
and
Patrick “PatMen” Mendoza.
PatMen’s previous team was a part of Paper Rex and helped them win the VALORANT Masters Toronto trophy. This season, he signed with Global Esports.
One major addition to the roster is the coach for Global Esports,
Hector “FrosT” Rosario. He was previously a part of Talon Esports for over a couple of years. During that time, he helped the team finish in the top half of VCT Pacific. It does feel like FrosT has the potential to help Global Esports finally have a good season that all the fans hoped for since 2023.
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Featured image: Riot
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