"We are a bit confused": crws on Talon Esports' role divisions in VCT 2023: Pacific League

The VCT 2023 Pacific League kicked off on March 25, 2023. It is the first all-Asian international tournament. Ten franchised teams from all over the Asia-Pacific region are fighting it out for a chance to represent the region at this year's only Valorant Masters event in Tokyo.

So far, viewers have witnessed a wide range of performances on the seven maps in the current map pool, with teams displaying different approaches to the map with unique Agent-compositions. Teams in the VCT Pacific League have also adopted the rotating six man roster format more than their Americas or EMEA counterparts.

This leads to interesting connotations in terms of results and gameplay. One team that has been consistently switching out members as well as coming up with different compositions is Talon Esports.

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What is going on with Talon Esports in VCT 2023 Pacific League?

Talon Esports is yet to win a single match in the VCT Pacific League so far. This has been particularly unnerving for fans because the team looked quite strong in Sao Paulo at VCT LOCK//IN defeating MIBR and Evil Geniuses and even taking a map off of DRX. Coming into the Pacific League, they had a lot of expectations riding on their backs, but things have gone from bad to worse for the team.

In their three matches so far, the team has played six out of the seven maps in the current rotation and has tried out a variety of Agent compositions that are well outside the current meta for the maps.

Talon Esports' matches in VCT Pacific League upto Week 3 (Screenshot via vlr.gg)

They started off Week 1 with Sage replacing Killjoy on Ascent, and needless to say it didn't work out well for the team. Week 2 saw the team play Gekko on Ascent and Haven and lose both their matches. And on Week 3 the team brought out three Duelists in Split against DRX, alongside a Reyna on Pearl.

You will notice that it is not only the Agent-choices that are borderline absurd when it comes to the team, it is also that they are switching players around different roles. While teams like DRX have managed to achieve great heights playing like that, Talon Esports seems no where close to that level yet.

It is on this matter that Sportskeeda Esports asked their IGL Thanamethk "crws" Mahatthananuyut what the idea behind such erratic movements were in the post-match interview after their game against DRX:

"We are a bit confused for the (exact) roles for each person. As we play in the bigger leagues, there's a lot of mistakes that we have seen from our own players. We have signed new players and have switched players to different roles. We are trying to find the right role for the right person."

While this issue cropping up makes sense for newly formed teams, the question that arises is, wouldn't it make more sense to pick more meta compositions and get the fundamentals in place before testing out new stuff? Especially when the team has been struggling to find time for practice as mentioned by different players and the coach on multiple occasions over the first couple of weeks of the VCT Pacific League.

crws further added:

"It was me moving back to my own role. So it wasn't much of a problem for me.We are just trying to find the perfect positions for the new additions to the team."

One can only hope that the team finds its grounding soon as the halfway mark of the tournament is fast approaching and it might be too late to recover quickly enough to make it into the playoffs.