RRQ Jemkin has criticized the organization of the VCT Pacific Kickoff 2026, which took place at Sangam Colosseum, Seoul, from January 22 to February 15, 2026. This early season championship served as a platform for teams competing in VCT Pacific to advance to VCT Masters Santiago 2026.

In this tournament, RRQ was forced to relinquish its slot to the VCT Masters Santiago after suffering defeats from Nongshim, T1, and Paper Rex in the final phase of the slot race to the VCT Masters.

RRQ Jemkin Criticizes VCT Pacific Kickoff

During a press conference with the media after the RRQ vs PRX match on Sunday (February 15), Team RRQ duelist Jemkin shared his thoughts on the organization of this year's VCT Pacific Kickoff.

Jemkin felt that there was unequal treatment by the VCT Kickoff organizers. “I feel we need to discuss how the admins are working at this kickoff. Especially, for example, in the last Nongshim match, our first game against Nongshim was delayed by 18 minutes, and there was no penalty,” said Jemkin when translated into Indonesian.

In addition to highlighting the treatment of Nongshim, Jemkin also mentioned other violations and unfair treatment. "Their T1 players always smoke in the bathroom, and they never get penalized. I don’t care if I’m not allowed to say that, but they always smoke and vape in the bathroom. The players never get penalized, but if any of us go smoking somewhere else, they say we’ll get penalized for it,” he said.

“And especially today, the map was really strange. Because first of all, they not only chose the wrong agent, but the second time they forgot to unlock Veto,”

“And before that, the admin told us, ‘if you don’t unlock Veto, it’s your mistake and you’ll get penalized for it’. They even sent a message on Discord saying, ‘Don’t forget to unlock the Veto, or else some penalties will be added,’ but today they didn’t unlock the Veto.” 

“We asked the admin what the penalty was, and they said, ‘Eh, we don’t know, and we’ll discuss it after the match,’ or something like that. So I think the admin needs to do something because sometimes the favoritism or something like that is a bit crazy toward the Korean team or the more popular teams,” he explained.

As of this writing, there has been no official response from the VCT Pacific Kickoff organizers regarding Jemkin’s criticism. Regardless, Jemkin also acknowledged that the team that defeated RRQ played better than his team. 

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