The VCT Pacific League is off to an explosive start, offering its fans thrilling top-tier VALORANT from teams throughout Asia. The matchdays have been so protracted throughout the first two weeks of the season despite the fantastic contests, the league’s commissioner has promised a fix.
The head of VALORANT Esports for the APAC region, Jake Sin, addressed the issue of long matchdays after day two of week two ended just before 1am local time in Seoul as both series went to three maps. After Gen.G finally closed out the day with a win over Detonation FocusMe, Sin promised change.
“With the well-being and safety of our players and fans in mind, we are reviewing an earlier start time for playoffs,” Sin wrote on Twitter. “We will also try to condense broadcast duration overall.”
Over the first two weeks of the 2023 VCT Pacific season, matches have been kicking off at 6pm local time in Seoul. VCT Americas starts at noon local time in Los Angeles, and while VCT EMEA also starts at 6pm locally in Berlin, there has been less public criticism regarding late days. It’s worth noting, however, that across all five days of the EMEA super week to kick off their season, there were no days where both matches went to three maps.
The second day of week two in VCT Pacific went to all six maps, resulting in the longest match day of the league so far. Given that the proposed solution provided by Sin only provides an earlier start time once playoffs start, which isn’t until the final week of May, the VCT Pacific team will have to trim down their broadcast somehow to avoid going past midnight as much as possible.