VALO2ASIA

CHAMPIONS OF THE LAST 4 MASTERS: • Masters Shanghai: Gen.G • Masters Bangkok: T1 • Masters Toronto: Paper Rex • Masters Santiago: Nongshim RedForce

🇰🇷 DRX have renamed themselves as KIWOOM DRX following a new naming sponsorship This move comes after a strategic business agreement (MOU) with Kiwoom Securities, a South Korean financial services company. The signing ceremony took place at DRX Seoul Tower on March 19th.

Biank diagnosed with brain lesion; UR Esports and Trace Esports to cover full medical costs valo2asia.com/news/biank-dia…

Former BLG and Trace Esports player 🇨🇳 Biank has been diagnosed with a brain lesion and is currently in a post-surgery recovery stage. Biank's current team, UR Esports, and his former team, Trace Esports, have agreed to fully cover all of his medical expenses, including treatment and rehabilitation. "[...] Biank has successfully undergone surgery, and the risk caused by pressure from the lesion has now been resolved. His overall post-operative condition remains stable. However, due to the nature of the condition and the surgery, he will still need to go through a long recovery period. At this stage, the club has arranged a dedicated recovery space and a professional caregiver for Biank, providing 24-hour daily care and rehabilitation support [...]" Biank most recently appeared for BLG as an emergency stand-in for Knight during VCT CN Kickoff 2026 in Guangzhou.

🇰🇷 Gen.G Global Academy have announced Estrella as their new coach! At GGA, he will be offering 1:1 and 1:2 coaching sessions, according to the announcement. Estrella was last seen competing for DRX in VCT Pacific 2025.

🇯🇵 MATAGI SNIPERS have announced the passing of founding member and VALORANT player Yossy, aged 69 The organization revealed he passed away due to cancer in 2025 and despite his illness, remained actively involved in team activities. Rest in peace🕊️

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN

@DracoJ7652 That was my first thought too. He really is s1mple @s1mpleVAL

@VALO2ASIA He's s1mpie btw

BRO IS NOT S1MPLE....

🇨🇳 FunPlus Phoenix have signed 🇨🇭 kovaQ ahead of VCT CN Stage 1 Before joining FPX, the former Team Vitality player was competing in Tier 2 under the CGN Esports banner.

VALORANT Challengers SEA Split 1 is now heading into playoffs. 🇮🇩 BOOM, 🇮🇩 Alter Ego, 🇵🇭 KADILIMAN, and 🇻🇳 4 SHURIMA were eliminated in the group stage, while the remaining teams move on to the playoffs. Playoffs begin today, March 18, and run through March 29.

The timings in this graphic by VCT Pacific are incorrect. Matches each day begin at 16:00 (GMT+8), with Game 2 estimated to start at 18:00 (GMT+8)

The VCT Pacific Stage 1 tournament schedule and format has been announced! 12 teams will be split into 2 groups of 6, with the top 4 from each group advancing to the playoffs. The top 3 teams by the end of Stage 1 will qualify for VCT Masters London.

🇰🇷 DRX have promoted Yong from their Academy team to the main roster It remains unclear whether he will immediately join the active roster and replace another player.

In case you missed it, CN Evolution Series Act 1 is running from March 16-22! The 9 VCT CN teams that did not qualify for Santiago are joined by the top 3 of the recent National Competition: Rare Atom, Any Questions, and Invictus Gaming. Matches begin daily at 17:00 GMT+8.

VCT Masters Santiago - Top 10 ACS 1 - 🇨🇿 M8 marteen 2 - 🇨🇦 FUR eeiu 3 - 🇰🇷 NS Dambi 4 - 🇰🇷 T1 BuZz 5 - 🇰🇭 G2 jawgemo 6 - 🇰🇷 T1 iZu 7 - 🇰🇷 NS Francis 8 - 🇹🇷 BBL Lar0k 9 - 🇬🇧 NRG keiko 10 -🇸🇬 PRX Jinggg

Watch the post-grand finals press conference featuring the full Nongshim RedForce roster, who attended a 44-minute session with the press at VCT Masters Santiago. The full Paper Rex team also attended the post-match press conference. Available on YouTube: VALO2ASIA

VCT Masters Santiago - Top 10 Rated Players 1 - 🇨🇿 M8 marteen 2 - 🇨🇦 FUR eeiu 3 - 🇺🇸 G2 trent 4 - 🇰🇷 NS Xross 5 - 🇰🇷 T1 iZu 6 - 🇬🇧 NRG keiko 7 - 🇰🇷 NS Dambi 8 - 🇰🇷 T1 stax 9 - 🇰🇷 NS Ivy 10 - 🇺🇸 NRG skuba

PRX invy: "I'd say I've learned a lot already. I mean, I've played more games this Kickoff alone than I did last year. So all of these games, I've learned a lot in each match and from my teammates also and from the coaches, from the losses we had before and up until now. I've learned a lot and I'm going to take it to heart and improve for the next Split."

PRX alecks reflects on the team's playstyle and how it has evolved over the years: "I think we've just got a lot more careful. I think that was a bit disappointing on our side because I think we know how to shut this down because we used to do these kinds of things and we couldn't do it today because, again, like I said, we forgot. I can go through the years, but between 2022 to 2024, we pretty much just made sure that everything was strat-based and we just charged people and hoped that we had better mechanics. Then around 2025, I think we took a look at the year and with how good Yoru was, we just tried to leverage the fact that Yoru could be everywhere on the map and we tried to make sure that we understood the game on a micro level a lot better. Maybe for all you know, it came back to bite us in the ass today. What we needed to do was win the fight and then [inaudible], and we used to be very good at that. So if the meta stays the same, I can promise you that we will be back to our best charging people." (via @manguitouu @SonsOfKS)

NS Rb: Thank you for remembering that it's been six years. Right now, this feels like the best day of my life. Starting all the way back from the VALORANT beta in 2020, I think I always viewed myself more as someone who was still learning. Honestly, I never really thought of myself as someone who could just guarantee that I was a great player. So from the members I played with starting in Vision Strikers through DRX up until 2023, I think I spent those three years learning. Then through that learning, when I went to TEC in VCT CN, I thought a lot about how to use what I had learned, not just in-game but also more broadly in life. And that eventually brought me here to Nongshim and to this moment. In the end, though, the result came down to learning, studying, teammates covering for one another, and most importantly, as obvious as it sounds, hard work. (via @otsendpoem)