Filipino-dominated Team Falcons Vega (FLC) and Sisu Esports went deeper in their online tournament runs in the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT): Game Changers Southeast Asia (SEA) Split 2 last June 28.
In the lower bracket, Sisu (stylized as sisu) clinched the last ticket heading to Game Changers Pacific with a cardiac 2-1 victory and eliminated Vietnamese-Singaporean squad 36 Thieves (36TH).
Coming off a comfortable 13-4 win on Breeze, the squad bounced back from a 10-13 defeat in Lotus to take the decider in Haven in a tight 13-9 finish.
Joining Falcons Vega, Sisu’s qualification meant three SEA teams heading to the Pacific stage featuring a Filipino talent, including wiwiwi’s sentinel Tiara “Alluka” Pleno.
“I’m glad it’s over now, it [was] kinda scary,” said Sisu In-Game Leader (IGL) Mary “capriciouS” Sabado after the back-to-back games stretching to three maps, including their win against Zero Sugar the day before.
The 24-year-old Filipino skipper highlighted the team’s positivity as one of their lifelines that got them through the tense series. “We kept cheering each other up because we know there’s something on the line, so we’re there for each other no matter what,” Sabado said.
3-round deadlock
Sisu broke a three-round deadlock at the seventh round at Breeze coming off a scuffle at the entrance of B Site to spark a 5-1 surge at the defensive end, resulting in a four-round lead at halftime.
The Filipino-Indonesian-Singaporean quintet wasted no time as attackers, taking off with Garcia’s quadra kill on Round 13 and steamrolling the next four rounds to take the series lead.
36 Thieves responded with authority on Pearl, showing precision in aim duels and burying their opposition to a 3-11 hole. Sisu fired back with six unanswered rounds to trim the gap to two, but was proven too late as 36TH secured a wipeout on Round 23 to bring the match toward Haven.
Stumbling early on a three-round deficit, a tense firefight won on the sixth round sparked a 7-1 Sisu run, capping off with a win at pistols of the second half, 8-5.
As 36 Thieves clawed back with four consecutive elimination wins to regain the lead at the eighteenth round, Sisu countered with another 4-0 push, securing a flawless round to move onto series point.
Sabado dropped the curtains by shooting down three 36TH members as her squad successfully retake the C Site at the 21st round to close the series.
Sisu’s duelist Surassawadee “yxqme” Khongpechdee made her presence known throughout the three maps. She popped 54 kills and 237 Average Combat Score (ACS) as Waylay and Yoru, with controller “becca” providing support with a series-high 26 assists.
36 Thieves’ “tess” and “Dau7” led the squad in the stat sheets with 46 and 45 eliminations, respectively.
Rematch
With the win, Sisu moves on with an opportunity to set a rematch against their Upper Bracket tormentors Team Falcons Vega as they head to the Lower Bracket Finals.
“To be honest, I think we might play better than how we have played in Lowers, because now we’re not thinking about qualification [to SEA GC Pacific], so now we’re just going to play our best,” said Sabado.
It was a one-sided affair in the Upper Bracket Finals as Split 1 champions Team Falcons Vega demolished wiwiwi (wiwi), 2-0, on their way to the Grand Finals. This extended the squad’s unbeaten run this year to 11 series in a row.
The reigning titlists took only 65 minutes to end the series with a 13-2 opener at Haven and a 13-5 smackdown on Lotus.
FLC’s controller Camille “Kamiyu” Enriquez of the Philippines and IGL Modhi “madv” Alkanhal of Saudi Arabia had their moments of brilliance with the former nabbing a 20/9/5 kill-death-assist (KDA) scoreline as Omen on Split and the latter pouring 23 of her 41 eliminations in Lotus as Deadlock.
A quadra kill from Enriquez from the opening round set the tone for Falcons Vega in the opening map as they sprint towards a 4-to-nothing start.
Dropping only two of their first twelve rounds, the champions wasted no time in their attacking half after picking off all wiwi members in Round 15 to grab a decisive 1-0 series lead.
Similar scenarios occurred on Lotus, with FLC banking off a 5v2 clutch from Kelly “shirazi” Jaudian and Alexandria “Alexy” Francisco on the eleventh round to gain an economic advantage the next frame and secure another 10-2 lead.
wiwi spurted to a 3-1 mini-run early in the second half, but a crafty retake with Sheriffs and Deadlock’s ultimate “Annihilation” allowed FLC to get the defusal win on Round 17 and climb to series point.
Falcons Vega slammed the door on any comeback attempts the round after as they engaged in a shootout in A Rubble where they eviscerated all wiwi members.
Grand finals
Despite being the first team into the Grand Finals, FLC is yet to lift their foot off the gas pedal. “I think we are very happy with our results, but it’s not over yet because we still need to win the grand finals cleanly,” said duelist Odella “enerii” Abraham.
The 22-year-old Filipino sharpshooter praised the team’s growth mindset and having no room for complacency as the competition gets tougher.
“There are still a lot of things that we can improve on and… mental obstacles [that] we have to overcome sometimes, especially during very important matches, so I think that’s what we’re going to try to improve on coming into the Pacific,” Abraham said.
The three remaining teams will get a two-week rest heading into the championship weekend that will feature two best-of-five matches with SEA’s top seed heading to Pacific on the line.
Sisu and wiwiwi will face off in the Lower Bracket Finals on July 11, 7 p.m. (in Manila), with the winner taking on Falcons Vega in the championship round on July 12.
