Korea's Valorant Four: Three Masters in Three Years and a TenZ Twist

When Riot launched Valorant's partner leagues in 2023, Korea's reputation in esports was built on StarCraft, League of Legends and Overwatch. In Valorant it had to start again. Three years later, Korean clubs have won three Masters titles in a row, hosted a world championship in Seoul and, this month, become the centre of the biggest off-season story in the game.

Four Korean teams play in VCT Pacific: Gen.G, T1, DRX (playing in 2026 as KIWOOM DRX) and Nongshim RedForce. Two of them, NS and T1, reached Valorant Champions 2026 in Shanghai. And in early November, reports said T1 is set to bring the former Sentinels star Tyson "TenZ" Ngo out of retirement for 2027.

The league they play in

VCT Pacific is one of four international leagues, each with 12 teams. In 2026 the Pacific table also featured Paper Rex, Global Esports, FULL SENSE, Rex Regum Qeon, DetonatioN FocusMe, Team Secret, ZETA DIVISION and VARREL, covering Singapore, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

That makes Pacific one of the most varied leagues in esports, and one of the hardest to read. In 2026 its three titles went to three different teams: NS won Kickoff and then Masters Santiago, Paper Rex won Stage 1 by sweeping FULL SENSE 3-0, and Global Esports won Stage 2 by beating NS 3-2 after trailing 0-2.

Three Masters in three years

Korea's breakthrough came in 2024. Gen.G reached the final of Masters Madrid, losing 3-2 to Sentinels, and then won Masters Shanghai, beating Team Heretics 3-2. It was the first international title for a Pacific team.

In 2025, T1 won Masters Bangkok, beating G2 Esports 3-2 in a final that went to overtime, with Meteor as MVP. And in March 2026, Nongshim RedForce, promoted through Ascension a year earlier, swept Paper Rex 3-0 to win Masters Santiago, with Dambi as MVP. We tell that story in our Nongshim RedForce report.

Three titles in three years, from three different clubs: a sign of depth, not one lucky roster.

How 2026 went for each team

• Nongshim RedForce: the Korean team of the year. Unbeaten through Kickoff and Masters Santiago, runner-up in Stage 2 and Pacific's second seed at Champions, where it went out to eventual finalist Team Vitality.
• T1: reached the Stage 2 lower-bracket final, where it lost 3-1 to Global Esports, and then qualified for Champions on Championship Points as Pacific's fourth seed.
• Gen.G: beat Global Esports 2-1 in the Stage 2 group stage, but did not reach Champions.
• KIWOOM DRX: lost 2-1 to Global Esports in the first round of the Stage 2 upper bracket and also missed Champions. DRX had won Pacific Kickoff in 2025.

At Champions in Shanghai, T1 was drawn in Group A with 100 Thieves, JD Gaming and FUT Esports, and NS in Group D with Karmine Corp, Xi Lai Gaming and NRG. Neither reached the final, which Brazil's LOUD won against Vitality. Our season review has every result.

T1's rebuild and the TenZ story

The biggest Korean story of the year has come after the season. Reports in early November said T1 has secured a VCT Pacific partnership for the 2027-2028 cycle and is overhauling its roster. Players Meteor, Munchkin and DH and head coach KDG have left, while iZu, stax and BuZz stay, with BuZz re-signing through 2028.

The headline name is TenZ. The Canadian, a two-time Masters champion with Sentinels, stepped away from competition after Champions 2024 and joined T1 as a content creator in May 2026. In late October he posted that he was looking for a team, and on November 3 Sheep Esports reported that he is set to join T1's competitive roster, alongside former Fnatic and NRG player Austin "crashies" Roberts. As of mid-November, much of this was still based on reports.

Why it matters

For years the question about Korean Valorant was whether its teams could match their reputations. The three Masters titles answer that. What is missing is the biggest prize: no Korean team has won Champions.

T1's bet is that star power plus Korean structure is the way to get there. If TenZ and crashies do join, T1 becomes the most watched team in Pacific overnight, and the 2027 league will be the most anticipated in its short history. Valorant is free to play on PC, and the 2027 season starts in January.