The 2025 Challengers Leagues will include at least nine academy teams from VCT Pacific.
PACIFIC – Nine VCT Pacific teams are set to field academy rosters in the 2025 Challengers circuit across APAC, Riot Games has announced. These partnered teams will receive direct slots in their respective regional Challengers leagues, allowing them to skip the promotion and relegation process between splits. However, they will not be eligible to qualify for Ascension Pacific.
The organizations fielding academy rosters include:
- Challengers Korea – DRX, Gen.G, T1
- Challengers Japan – ZETA DIVISION, DetonatioN FocusMe
- Challengers Southeast Asia – RRQ, Talon Esports, Team Secret
- Challengers South Asia – Global Esports
“Challengers play an important role in talent development for the VCT Pacific league. We’ve already seen several players from the Challengers ecosystem move up to the international league, such as Free1ng, Hyunmin, Jitboys and WildOreoo. We want to continue deepening this talent development pipeline. So starting next year we are going to incorporate academy teams into our Challengers leagues across APAC.
This change will allow our partnered teams to scout, test and develop new talent for their teams. At the same time, this also gives up-and-coming stars more opportunities to join the ranks of partnered organizations. However, it remains our intention to continue giving new teams a chance to join VCT Pacific. So while academy teams can participate in Challengers, they will not be able to qualify for Ascension Pacific.”
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DRX have been running an academy team from the beginning with their “DRX Prospects” program, which has promoted several players to the main squad, including Cho “Flashback” Min-hyuk, Kang “BeYN” Ha-bin, and Na “Athan” Ha-jun (formerly known as Leviathan), who will temporarily step in as a stand-in for the upcoming TEN VALORANT Asia Invitational.
Gen.G operate a robust academy program known as the Gen.G Global Academy, while T1 recently unveiled their academy roster, led by Kim “TenTen” Tae-young, the younger brother of Masters Shanghai champion Kim “Meteor” Tae-o.
ZETA DIVISION’s academy program has successfully produced talent in the past, including Hiroki “hiroronn” Yanai and Yushin “Yuran” Hato, who competed with the main roster in the 2024 VCT Pacific League. Furthermore, Amon “Caedye” Okakura and “yastsuka” are currently playing for RIDDLE, a team that won the Challengers Japan Finals and qualified for Ascension 2024.
Meanwhile, RRQ have recently begun recruiting for their academy program, while Global Esports had previously announced plans to create an academy team but have not provided any updates since their last announcement in late 2023. Other teams have yet to announce any details about their academies.
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Cover photo courtesy of VALORANT Esports
