Following TEAM SECRET’s heroic performance in the top eight at the 2017 VALORANT Champions, excitement was growing in the Philippine VALORANT esports community that at least one of the nation’s representatives might make another strong showing in the Asia-Pacific region and eventually compete against the biggest teams at a global LAN event.

This year, the Philippines has been well-represented by six teams competing in the two stages of the VALORANT Champions Tour: APAC Challengers. The Philippine teams during Stage 1 Challengers were South Built Esports, NAOS Esports, and Action PH. Following that, in Stage 2, it was Team Secret, Rex Regum Qeon Esports, and Oasis Gaming.

After the two APAC Challengers stages and seven months of VCT 2022, none of the six Filipino representatives have qualified for either edition of VALORANT Masters.

In addition, Team Secret, one of the APAC representatives from last year, earned enough circuit points to compete in the Last Chance Qualifiers in August, making them the only PH team with a chance to advance to the Champions.

The VCT season for Filipino teams is almost done, thus the big issue is: was this year successful or have other APAC nations eclipsed the local scene? Let’s examine how the six teams performed during the regional qualifying rounds.

New kids to the VCT scene

Three new teams stepped up to the plate to represent the nation in the APAC qualifiers after a shocking VCT PH Stage 1 Challengers that saw local powerhouse Team Secret bow out early in the playoffs.

South Built Esports was the top-seeded team from the Philippines in Stage 1. They were paired with Hong Kong’s Oblivion Force, India’s Velocity Gaming, and Thailand’s FULL SENSE.

SBE was able to recover from losing its first game to FS and go on to win its following two games, advancing to the knockout stage.

NAOS Esports and Action PH, the final two seeds for the nation, coincidentally had similar outcomes in the APAC qualifiers. After two consecutive 2-1 series losses to the teams from Malaysia/Singapore, BLEED Esports, and Indonesia, Onic Esports, the former was eliminated from the group rounds.

The latter failed to advance through the play-in rounds with a 1-2 record, winning their first match against the Vietnamese team Team Big BAAM but losing their next two — the winner’s match against Onic Esports and the play-in match-deciding match again to FULL SENSE.

After Stage 1, a lot of things have transpired to these three teams. SBE finished fourth in the PH Stage 2 Challengers, just missing out on another opportunity to represent the nation. As a result of only being able to win one of the seven series they played during the local qualifications, NAOS Esports struggled to regain their form in the local scene.

Last but not least, Action PH ultimately made the decision to break ways with their whole VALORANT team after they placed 7th with a 3-4 record in the PH Stage 2 qualifiers.

Giants awakened from their nap

Two new teams and one well-known team competed in the just finished VALORANT APAC Stage 2 Challengers to prove their mettle against regional competition.

Oasis Gaming was the first local team to lose in the competition, despite having qualified for the regionals as the second seed for the Philippines. Oasis finished the group stage without a victory after suffering a two-nil series whitewash at the hands of ORDER Esports of Australia and BOOM Esports of Indonesia.

Rex Regum Qeon, who is relatively fresh to the local VALORANT scene, showed up in the PH qualifiers and won a spot as the third seed for his nation in the APAC Stage 2 Challengers. The regional superpower Xerxia Esports defeated RRQ in their initial round of the competition, but they were able to recover with a nail-biting 2-1 series victory over Global Esports of India.

Indonesia’s Alter Ego Esports defeated RRQ in the best-of-three series that will determine who advances to the playoffs, losing 2-1.

The winners of the Philippines Stage 2 Challengers, Team Secret, came in last but certainly not least.

TS was able to bounce back after losing to BLEED Esports in their opening group stage encounter and go on to win four straight matches, including two in the group stages and one each versus Xerxia and Onic Esports in the quarter and semifinals of the Upper Bracket.

Unfortunately, the mighty Filipino squad failed to qualify for Masters: Copenhagen following humiliating losses to Paper Rex, the indisputable winners of APAC, in the Upper Bracket finals, and to Xerxia, who they lost to in a devastating best-of-three series, in the Lower Bracket finals.

So what comes next?

The VCT season for the neighborhood area is essentially finished now that the dust has cleared, with Paper Rex and Xerxia scheduled to represent the APAC region in Copenhagen. However, Team Secret now has the chance to requalify for VALORANT Champions after earning 75 circuit points in the just-completed Stage 2 Challengers. nonetheless, this time by way of the Last Chance Qualifiers.

Can they reclaim their status as “Philippines’ final hope”? Time will only tell.

Team Secret will compete in the APAC LCQ from August 1 to 7 against stern regional competitors including BLEED, Onic, BOOM Esports, and more. For another opportunity to compete against the top VALORANT teams the five regions have to offer, the Team Secret and Filipino faithful must support the six-man roster.