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Two weeks of the 2023 season of the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Pacific League have now been completed. The tournament has ten participating teams from across Asia. It is largely being held at Sangam Colosseum in Seoul, South Korea, with the final matches slated to be held at the Jangchung Arena in the same city.
The first part of VCT Pacific League 2023 is a round-robin league format, with all teams playing against each other over eight weeks from which the top six will be selected for a double-elimination playoffs bracket. The top three from here will get a chance to represent the region at this year's only Masters event in Tokyo, Japan.
Throughout the first week of VCT Pacific 2023, there was rampant anticipation that one of the teams would pick Gekko, the latest addition to Valorant's list of Agents. It was only in the second match of Week 2 that this wish was fulfilled when Talon Esports picked the character on Ascent against T1.
Talon Esports' Gekko missed the mark against T1 in their VCT 2023: Pacific League match
Talon Esports picked Gekko on both Ascent and Haven against T1. On the former, Patiphan "Patt" Chaiwong played the Agent, while on the latter it was flexed by Itthirit "foxz" Ngamsaard.
In the first match, Patt ended up top-fragging for the team but that has more to do with his individual mechanical skills than the Agent itself. foxz, on the other hand, did not look particularly comfortable and produced a sub-par performance.
When Sportskeeda Esports asked T1's coach Yoon "Autumn" Eu-ddeum about his thoughts on the Gekko pick from their opponents, this was what he had to say:
"We honestly thought that Talon's combination of using Gekko wasn't that effective and it seemed kind of weak, which gave us the win."
Upon a primary look, Ascent still seems to be a good map for Gekko given all the open skies and close-quarter angles. Haven on the other side is much more spread out with three bomb sites and high walls. Talon's decision to replace a more conventional pick like Sova or Fade with Gekko seemed a bit half-baked as if they were simply trying something for the sake of it.
Talon Esports was the only team to pick Gekko in the Pacific League of VCT 2023 so far. The EMEA and Americas League have also had a couple of showings of Gekko with power-houses like LOUD and NAVI playing the new Initiator, but the results so far have been fairly mixed.
