Team Secret lose to ZETA DIVISION in VCT 2023 Pacific LCQ grand final
Team Secret missed out on yet another Champions appearance as they lost 3-1 to ZETA DIVISION in the grand final of the VALORANT Champions Tour 2023: Pacific Last Chance Qualifier (VCT 2023 Pacific LCQ).
.@zetadivision ends the series in Lotus!
The Japanese representatives are your #LCQPacific Champions! pic.twitter.com/yGybY51Lrd
— VCT Pacific @ LCQ (@vctpacific) July 23, 2023
The grand final match between ZETA and Secret kicked off with the Japanese team outplaying the Filipinos on Fracture.
Despite running a double duelist composition with a Jett (Jayvee “DubsteP” Paguirigan) and Raze (Jeremy “Jremy” Cabrera), ZETA managed to corner Team Secret in the first half, forcing the Adobo Gang to burn through both of their timeouts in the first half alone. Despite Secret’s efforts, which eventually forced the game to go to an overtime, ZETA snuffed Team Secret to win 14-12.
Not wanting to get swept all over again, Team Secret won the second game on Ascent 13-9. Initially, it seemed like ZETA was about to repeat game one’s outcome when they went up 5-2 early on. However, Secret’s perseverance pulled through thus forcing a tie by halftime and eventually winning the map to steal one game from the series.
Sadly, Team Secret’s win on Ascent would end up being their only map taken for the rest of the series.
Secret tried to gamble on the third game on Split with an unconventional lineup. They ran a double duelist and controller setup: Jim “BORKUM” Timbreza on Omen, Adrian Jiggs “invy” Reyes on Viper, Jremy surprising everyone with a Reyna, and DubsteP picking Raze. Furthermore, Jessie “JessieVash” Cuyco swapped out his signature Sova for a Skye. Unfortunately, this agent composition blew up on their faces as they failed to fend off ZETA’s attacks during their defensive start and it was all too late when they switched sides, ending the game 13-7 in favor of ZETA.
The series closed out on Lotus with ZETA winning the map 13-6. Koji “Laz” Ushida’s brand new comfort pick for the series, Chamber, haunted Team Secret as he opened up gunfights that swung in ZETA’s favor, eventually ending the game with a record of twenty-two kills and three assists while only dying a total of eight times.
With ZETA DIVISION as the final representative of the Pacific region for this year’s Champions, this marks the second year in a row Team Secret missed out on another Champions appearance after their lone appearance as a quarterfinalist on the first-ever Champions way back in 2021.
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