The VCT Pacific Stage 2 Playoffs open today, Aug. 13, at the Sangam SOOP Colosseum in Seoul, with Nongshim RedForce drawing Talon Esports and T1 meeting Stage 1 champion Rex Regum Qeon in the upper-bracket openers. The eight-team, double-elimination bracket follows a month of group play and runs through Aug. 31. Fans can follow the schedule and streams on the official VALORANT Esports hubs. 

VCT Pacific Stage 2 Playoffs Preview

Nongshim enters a familiar test against Talon. The Thai side swept the head-to-head in 2025, eliminating Nongshim in February’s Kickoff lower bracket and again edging them in Stage 1’s lower-bracket first round, with a regular-season win in between. Nongshim, however, reshaped its look in June by adding veteran in-game leader Goo “rb” Sang-min, aiming to stabilize mid-rounds and late-map calls. 

On the other side of the bracket, T1 faces an RRQ squad that lifted the Stage 1 trophy in May and remains built around explosive duelist Maksim “Jemkin” Batorov. RRQ took a tight series from T1 during Stage 1, and the rematch arrives with T1 leaning on newcomer Kang “DH” Dong-ho’s utility work to create openings for the team’s riflers. 

Bracket implications arrive fast. Winners from today advance to Thursday’s upper-bracket semifinals against group winners DRX and Paper Rex. Losers drop to Friday’s lower-bracket openers, where Gen.G and DetonatioN FocusMe await. All matches are best-of-three until the later rounds, under the league’s double-elimination format.

Riot’s Pacific league stages have seeded teams through two round-robin groups, with top finishers earning byes into the semifinals and the rest filtering into the bracket by placement. The Stage 2 champion and runner-up will claim regional berths to Champions. 

Play begins today with Talon versus Nongshim, followed by RRQ versus T1. Upper-bracket semifinals are set for Aug. 14; lower-bracket Round 1 plays Aug. 15.