[PCS & VCS] Everything you need to know about the PCS vs. VCS tournament!

We will finally have some international League of Legends action, as it was announced yesterday that there will be a clash between the Pacific Championship Series (PCS) and the Vietnamese Championship Series (VCS).

9 min readMay 26, 2020

Two teams from each region will battle against each other in a group stage, double round robin in a best-of-one. The first placed team will seed into the finals, whereas the second and third placed teams will play a best-of-five to determine who will play in the finals. Matches will be played on the 31st of May 18:00 CEST with the goal to raise funds for the COVID-19 pandemic.

First of all, I would like to thank the organizers and everyone around the event for hosting the event. Special thanks goes to @OpalCasts on Twitter for communicating and organizing the event for both the PCS and the VCS!

The teams that are participating in the tournament are:

PCS:

Machi Esports
Talon Esports

VCS:

GAM Esports
Team Flash

You can check out the tournament on these links in various languages:

Twitch:

English: twitch.tv/lolpacific

Taiwanese: twitch.tv/lolpacificTW

Thai: twitch.tv/lolpacificTH

Youtube:

English: youtube.com/lolpacific

Vietnamese: VETV7 Esports

In this article I will explain the heated rivalry between the two regions and their history. You will also know everything that you need to know about all four teams participating in the tournament, and what you can look forward to in the PCS vs. VCS tournament!

The history between the PCS/GPL/LMS/VCS regions

2012–2015

The PCS story

It all started back in 2012. The South-East Asia region was one big region with many known teams such as the Singapore Sentinels, Kuala Lumpur Hunters, Saigon Jokers and most notably the Taipei Assassins, who would later in the year win the Worlds 2012 tournament. Winning against other big team names such as Najin Sword, Moscow Five and Azubu Frost, the Taiwanese team upset everyone by taking the big prize against other opponents. The Taiwanese teams continued their domination through the GPL competition up until the beginning of 2015, where they would finally become their own region in the world. It also meant that the newly formed LMS would have their own worlds seeds.

Taipei Assassins being crowned as World Champions of Season 2 Worlds.

The VCS story

Meanwhile the Vietnamese teams continued to struggle in the early stages of the GPL, being middle of the pack teams. Slowly but surely the Vietnamese teams are picking up the pace getting closer and closer to a shot to the title. It all made it easier thanks to the exit of the Taiwanese teams to pick up their first trophy as a region. The Saigon Fantastic Five won their first ever trophy as the representatives of Vietnam in Spring. However the Thai team Bangkok Titans managed to win the GPL in summer, which meant that they were the team to qualify for worlds in 2015. Things were looking dire for Vietnam.

2016–2019

The PCS story

Well, you might’ve thought that the LMS region would succeed and be a big contender for other worlds participants. However this wasn’t the case, as four consecutive years of failure at worlds by not making it out of groups had disastrous impact on the LMS region as a whole. The LMS region had a couple highlight reels, but that wasn’t enough for the region as a whole. Big LMS star-players such as Karsa, Maple and SwordArt would move to the LPL. Other big players would end up retiring, especially from the AHQ side in Westdoor, AN and Albis. In the end there wasn’t anything to look forward to as a LMS-fan, knowing that worlds could be sadly a failure again. All and all, it was time for a new generation to step up and show what the LMS was all about.

GAM Levi at Worlds 2017 (Source: lolesports)

The VCS story

The SEA region was a literal joke to begin with. As Saigon Jokers were the winners of GPL Summer, it meant that they have qualified for the Wildcard tournament where only two teams could advance to the later stages of Worlds 2016. The Vietnamese representative ended 0–7 in the group stages, ending winless against other international opponents. It almost felt like there was no hope left for the SEA region. 2017 hits on the table, and Vietnam makes noise. With an impressive play-ins stages, they managed to qualify for the main stage of MSI 2017 where they almost made it into the final rounds of MSI 2017. It was a good premise on what the future could hold. The Vietnamese representatives managed to fulfill the same magic trick as they would qualify for Worlds 2017 with Gigabyte Marines and Young Generation. On the 21st of February it was announced that the Vietnamese league (VCS) would be an independent region and would have a seed at the following worlds events. An exciting time for Vietnam, as the region would grow and grow even further every season.

2020

The PCS story

The LMS region needed a different angle to compete with the best teams again. In order to do so, the region called for help and in 2020 the merger between the SEA-Tour and the LMS happened. Ten teams would participate in the PCS, with the goal of strengthening the region as a whole as well as making the competition more interesting for the audience. Long standing LMS team Flash Wolves would not participate in the PCS to everyone’s surprises. New teams such as Talon Esports and Berjaya Dragons would make their League of Legends debut. The competition went back and forth in the regular split, ending with a huge double best-of-five series between Machi Esports and Talon Esports in the play-offs. It was Talon Esports that managed to win 3–2 in the finals against Machi Esports to be the first winners of the PCS.

The VCS story

The VCS region continued to mature as a independent region. Whereas the LMS regions ceased to exist, the VCS region had been performing considerably well into a more international recognizable region. The region has gotten international attention, as Lowkey Esports had been acquired by the famous DotA Team Secret from Europe. In the regular split, GAM Esports managed to be a dominant force in the VCS, followed by Team Flash. However, Team Flash had returned the tables as they would win 3–2 in the finals against GAM Esports. Team Flash would win their first ever title in the VCS, and are looking to continue their pace going into summer.

What you need to know about the four participating teams!

PCS Region

Machi Esports:

Machi Esports has been a long lurker in the LMS/PCS region. Formerly known as Machi-17, the team is most famous for SivHD (Robbert van Eijndhoven) as their part-owner. The other owner of the Machi group is BigBrother (Jeffrey Huang), who used to a famous singer for hip-hop group Machi. Hence why it is called Machi Esports. Back to their League of Legends team, the team made a surprising comeback into the PCS as they would replace G-Rex. It was unknown why G-Rex decided to not compete in the PCS. It would pay out dividend, as Machi Esports steamrolled with a twelve consecutive winstreak in the PCS, finishing first place in the regular season and second in play-offs.

MCX M1ssion Penta kill on Azir. (Skip to 1h 19m 9s if link doesn’t work)

Star player of the team: M1ssion

The one man M1ssion at Machi Esports continues to impress in the PCS, showing a 101 on how to farm and get XP leads in an effective way. With an disappointing Worlds performance in 2019 on Hong Kong Attitude, M1ssion wants to show everyone what he is capable of. On top of his highlight reel, he managed to get a penta-kill in the play-offs on Azir vs. Talon Esports.

Talon Esports:

Talon Esports is a newly formed PCS team that is also known in the Pacific region for other games. However, you might also know Talon Esports for their Twitter game and their Twitter memes. Following the arrival of the PCS, the organization had been selected as one of the ten participants for the upcoming PCS Spring Season. Forming pieces of every team in the LMS with Unified and Kaiwing coming over from Hong Kong Attitude, Hanabi from Flash Wolves (rip) and two Korean imported players in Baby (now River) and Candy, the team was more than ready for the competition. Talon Esports would finish third place in the regular season and being crowned champions of the PCS as they finished first place in the play-offs.

PCS representative Talon Esports on Twitter

Star player of the team: Kaiwing

It was difficult to choose between all the star players of Talon Esports. But in my opinion the star player of the team is Kaiwing. The support player of Talon Esports is most of the time the playmaker of the team which seals them many wins. When Kaiwing sees an opportunity he never hesitates to go for the commitment. Champions like Bard and Thresh are the ones that he is excelling onto, which needs to be stopped in any case.

VCS Region

GAM Esports:

GAM Esports is an long standing organization in the VCS, that is arguably the most known team in Vietnam. Formerly known as the Boba Marines in the GPL, the team has been here competing since 2014 under various different names. GAM Esports is most notably known for having one of the greatest performances from a Vietnamese team during MSI and Worlds 2017. Coming into the VCS Spring 2020 season, the team made big changes to their roster. Dia1, Blazes and Palette were brought to the main roster for 2020 to continue their dominance in the VCS. In the regular split, GAM Esports managed to take the first place with an astounding 13–1 series score, only dropping a series to Team Flash. In the play-offs, the team failed to win the VCS title against Team Flash which they lost 3–2 in the finals.

GAM Dia1 on Cassiopeia

Star player of the team: Dia1

The player that can do it all. Dia1 leads the VCS in many statistics in the mid lane. One prominent statistic that stands out are his solo kills. How many solo kills does Dia1 have? 36 solo kills in the mid lane in the VCS. Don’t even ask how that is possible, he averages 1 solo kill per game. The beautiful part of GAM Esports and Dia1 is the cohesion and the set-up of their plays. Every play begins or ends with Dia1 taking the lead. Dia1 is truly the MVP of the VCS Spring Split, and he will definitely show everyone what he is capable of with GAM Esports.

Team Flash:

Team Flash has only been here for two splits in the VCS, but their impact has been really noticed in the VCS. Taking over Sky Gaming Daklak in VCS Summer 2019, the team with Optimus has performed really well and ended up second place in the regular season and third in play-offs. Coming into the Spring 2020 season, Optimus left the team and was immediately replaced by Kati, who is a rookie player for Team Flash. The team surpassed expectations, finishing second place just behind GAM Esports. Their stride came when they surprised everyone and won the VCS 2020 Spring Split against GAM Esports with the score of 3–2.

FL Slayder: With great power comes great responsibility…..

Star player of the team: Slayder

The bot laner of Team Flash has been exceptional for the Team Flash organization. Onto his most played champion Kai’sa, he managed to carry a lot of Team Flash games into victories. The main strength of Slayder would be his reliability and overall skill as a player. Slayder will never have a bad game, and always finds CS leads whenever he could possibly have. Whenever you watch Team Flash, this is the guy to look out for.