Xipto Esports gets boot in Predator League 2026 semis, eyes VCT climb

NEW DELHI, India — Xipto Esports’ campaign at the Asia Pacific Predator League 2026 came to a close after a 0-2 loss to Indonesia’s Boom Esports in the semis Saturday at the Bharat Mandapam Hall here.

The second seed from the Philippines, Xipto Esports is composed of an all?Filipino core — Emmanuel “Eman” Morales, Yousef “Hotsauz” El?Yousef and John “JA” Arone, together with Malaysians Amirul “Fixy” Zaqwan and Sirajul “Riza” Azrie. Despite their exit from the tournament, the team still delivered one of its strongest international showings to date.

The squad was drawn into what was considered one of the tournament’s toughest brackets, Group C, which had last year's Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Pacific Stage 1 Champions, RRQ, as well as top teams from Malaysia and China in Todak and Dream Chaser.

Despite the challenge, Xipto emerged as the top seed after wins over Todak and Dream Chaser, while managing to push RRQ to a triple overtime.

The squad's semifinal against Indonesia's Boom Espoted hinged on a narrow opening map, which saw them leading at the half at 7-5. But the latter capitalized on Xipto's mistakes to turn the tables and eventually take the opening map at 10-13.

“I think the first map should [have been] ours. We made some minor mistakes on defense and really needed that map for momentum to bring it to a third,” Emmanuel "Emman" Morales said in their post-match interview with Filipino media.

Momentum slipped further in Map 2, where Boom Esports' timeout adjustments halted Xipto’s strong start.

“We won the pistol round on attack and had a good beginning, but when they took timeouts it felt like they had a perfect read. Same comp, same looks but they were just the better team that game,” said Yousef "Hotsauz" El-Yousef.

Against top-tier squads like Boom Esports and RRQ, Xipto felt the gap was less about aim or strategy and more about composure in high-pressure moments.

“The skill gap isn’t that far. The only difference is experience and how each player handles pressure. At this level, the better mental always wins,” said Morales.

Despite the semis exit, the team said it is happy with its performance, given the journey it went through to head to the Predator League Finals.

"When we played our Philippine Predator Championship, it was a wake-up call for us. We knew that we could do more than that and even if we fell into third or fourth place in this tournament, we're still happy with the outcome because our group was one of the strongest groups in the tournament. We managed to come close to RRQ, which is a Tier One team and of course, Todak and Dream Chasers are very good teams as well. We're just happy with the results but we know that we could do better and this won't be our last try to prove that," said El-Yousef.

The roster affirmed they will stick together heading into VCT Challengers Southeast Asia, especially with a direct path to the Stage 2 Playoffs now on the line for Challenger teams.

“We’re going to continue as five and be better. The goal this year is to go beyond Tier Two and qualify for Champions,” said Morales.