After winning Split three of South Asia’s Challengers league, the team didn’t drop a single series at the Ascension qualifiers.
NEW DELHI — As Ascension Pacific draws closer, the different sub-regions have started crowning their representatives at the event in Bangkok. South Asia is the first region to conclude their Ascension qualifier, with Velocity Gaming emerging as the champions at the end of the event.
“The players on this team, they make it smooth. They listen to everything I have to say, it’s been great in this circuit this year.”
– Velocity Gaming captain Russ
Velocity Gaming dominated the circuit in 2025
When Velocity Gaming announced their roster ahead of the 2025 South Asia Challengers season, their roster looked power-packed, with three ex-VCT Pacific pros from Global Esports: SkRossi, LightningFast, and Russ joining the team, along with Indonesian players damaraa and Madelyn, both coming from Bigetron Esports. While VLT have historically been an organization with a storied history in the game since Valorant’s release, they were investing in a roster for the whole year after taking a break for most of 2024.
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This new team promised to have the firepower to perform, not just in the regional qualifiers but also at Ascension. The season saw the team qualify for Challengers South Asia Split 1 without dropping a map. They then won every single game they played in Split 1, only dropping one map.
“Coming to South Asia again, we have to prove ourselves again, we will try our best at Ascension.”
– SKRossi
This qualified them for Split 2, where despite starting strong, they ended up placing third, which still put them in contention for Split 3. Split 3 ended up being a repeat of the first Split, as VLT dominated to place first, locking them into the Ascension qualifiers as the top seed thanks to the circuit points they’d accumulated.
Winning out the Ascension qualifiers to represent South Asia
VLT were coming in strong after winning Split 3, again without dropping a series. With momentum on their side, they shut down DOT EXE and S8UL Esports both to barge into the grand finals. S8UL came back through the lower bracket to set up the rematch between them and Velocity with the highest stakes of the year, with the winner alone having a chance at Ascension 2025.
With a double map-ban advantage, the veto shaped up in Velocity Gaming’s favor, and map one, their pick of Lotus, saw damaraa and Lightningfast on the Neon and Omen go ballistic to ensure the team took their first map win 13-10. S8UL made a resurgence on map number two, winning Ascent 13-7. Map three, Haven, one of VLT’s stronger maps, saw them regain their momentum with a quick 13-6 victory, thanks to damaraa’s insane performance on Neon with an ACS of 387 and six first kills.
After Haven, VLT headed over to Pearl, their opponent’s map pick. The game was the closest yet, but VLT closed it out 13-11, denying S8UL a map five and locking in their victory in the grand finals 3-1. The highest ACS on the server belonged to VLT’s duelist damaraa, who had 17 first kills, an ACS of 256, and 78 kills over four maps. Both Lightningfast and Rossi had some of the best stats in the event as well.
“At the end of the day, we won the game – they were whiffing a lot more than us.”
– Russ
Looking ahead at Ascension 2025
Happening in Bangkok this year, VCT Ascension Pacific 2025, has only one confirmed rep so far, since South Asia is the first region to finish all of their qualifiers. In the prior two Ascension events, South Asia has not had the best time. The first iteration of Ascension in 2023 saw its representative Orangutan (OG) bomb out winless in the group stage, despite being the strongest team in the region. 2024 was mildly better, since Revenant Esports, despite dropping to the lower bracket in their opening game, found a win before being eliminated.
2025 seems to have the strongest team South Asia has yet put up, with three ex-VCT players on the roster, as well as two explosive Indonesian talents. It would be quite a redemption story for Rossi, LightningFast, and Russ to claw their way back to tier one by winning the tournament, but a long road remains ahead of them.
“We’ve prepared everything we need. We’re ready to play.”
– Russ
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Cover photo courtesy of NODWIN Gaming’s YouTube
