Riot Games officially announced Monday that Thailand-based esports organization Full Sense will replace Talon Esports in the Valorant Champions Tour Pacific (VCT Pacific) for the 2026 season.
Talon’s partnerships with Riot for VCT Pacific and League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP) were terminated in November due to a “failure to operate and manage its team in accordance with league standards, including a pattern of significantly overdue payments to players and an inability to demonstrate sufficient financial capacity to continue participating in the VCT.”
The news wasn’t particularly surprising for anyone paying attention the the financial state of the organization since August; The Esports Advocate previously reported at the end of August that Talon had found itself in hot water after a private loan agreement between its co-founder and CEO, Sean Zhang, and investor Bainy Zhang surfaced on X (formerly Twitter). Bainy, founder of Fisher8 Capital, alleged that Talon owed him $75,000 USD in unpaid interest tied to a short-term $1 million bridge loan dating back to late June. Ultimately, Zhang and TALON paid off the interest payment at the beginning of September. Other rumors circulated that TALON was struggling to pay staff, players, and contractors the money it owed.
Ultimately, these and other financial issues led to Riot terminating its contracts with the organization.
More from Riot’s official announcement on Full Sense joining VCT Pacific:
“With the 2026 season kicking off soon, it was important that our competitive selection process focused on finding an organisation with operational readiness and alignment on goals and collaboration. With that said, we also wanted to ensure that the replacement team had fan resonance and an operational footprint in Southeast Asia to ensure representation from the region. After a careful review of a number of proposals, we determined that Full Sense met all our requirements and would be the best fit for the league.”
Riot added in its statement that Full Sense would be “retaining the full active roster of players from TALON,” and that this decision would have no effect on 2026 formats for the league.
Separately, Full Sense issued a brief statement on X Monday:
“We are excited to announce that Full Sense has officially entered VCT Pacific 2026 — proudly representing Thailand. Let’s “Fly Higher” together, powered by Thai spirit.”
In addition to competing in VCT Pacific, Full Sense fields teams in Teamfight Tactics, Realm of Valor (better known as “Arena of Valor” outside Thailand and “Honor of Kings” in China), and League of Legends.
You can learn more about the team at www.fullsense.gg.