Global Esports Are Champions of VCT 2026: Pacific Stage 2 After Reverse-Sweeping Nongshim RedForce 3-2

Global Esports are the champions of VCT 2026: Pacific Stage 2, coming back from a 0-2 deficit to beat Nongshim RedForce 3-2 in the Grand Final.
Nongshim opened the series in complete control, winning their own pick on Sunset and then routing Global Esports' pick, Split, 13-2. From there Global Esports won every map that mattered — Abyss, their own pick Lotus, and the decider Haven — to deny Nongshim the title in five maps.

How Global Esports won it

Nongshim's start was as good as it looked. They survived an early 0-3 hole on Sunset by reeling off five straight rounds to flip a 5-7 deficit into a 9-7 lead, then held on 13-11 after Global Esports briefly tied it at 9-10. Split was a rout in the other direction — Global Esports picked it and then won only 2 of 15 rounds on it, with Nongshim opening 5-0 and never looking back.

That's when the series turned. On Abyss, Nongshim clawed back from 4-7 down to tie it twice — 7-7 and 8-8 — but Global Esports answered by winning 3 of the next 4 rounds and closed the map's final two rounds to take it 13-10. Lotus was worse for Nongshim: Global Esports won the first 11 rounds outright before Nongshim got on the board, an 11-0 hole that made the eventual 13-5 scoreline almost academic. That forced a fifth map, Haven — the one neither team had picked in the veto — and it went the same way: tied 6-6 at the half, Global Esports ripped off five straight rounds to lead 7-11, survived a late Nongshim rally that closed it to 10-11, and shut the door by winning the final two rounds, 13-10, to finish the series 3-2.

The draft: both teams lost a map they picked

The veto went NS ban Summit, NS ban Ascent, NS pick Sunset, GE pick Split, NS pick Abyss, GE pick Lotus, Haven left over as the decider. Nongshim won their first pick (Sunset) but not their second (Abyss); Global Esports won their second pick (Lotus, by 8 rounds) but not their first (Split, by 11). With both teams splitting their own picks 1-1, the series came down to the one map nobody chose — and Global Esports won that too.

How Nongshim RedForce let a 2-0 lead slip away

• The Split blowout papered over thin margins elsewhere. A 13-2 win looks like control, but Nongshim had already needed a 5-round streak just to survive Global Esports' 0-3 start on Sunset the map before — the series was closer than 2-0 suggested.

• Abyss retake collapse. Nongshim tied the map twice, at 7-7 and 8-8, but Global Esports succeeded in every post-plant situation the rest of the way — including the final two rounds — to close it out 13-10.

• Lotus was over before it started. Losing the first 11 rounds in a row left Nongshim no realistic path back in a map that decided nothing less than a trip to a decider.

• Haven, one round from overtime. Nongshim clawed back from 7-11 down to 10-11 — one round from forcing a 24th — before Global Esports closed it out.

• Francis's series. Nongshim's Yoru finished 12/21/6, a match-worst -9 differential and the softest link on either roster across the five maps.

Series MVP: xavi8k (Global Esports) — the highest-rated player in the entire match (1.09), on the winning side, going 79/69/31 across all five maps.


Image Credit : VCT Pacific