Article by Margaux Maog
On their 3rd Grand Finals appearance, Paper Rex finally managed to bag 1st place at VALORANT Masters Toronto, winning against the EMEA region’s top seed, FNATIC in a 3-1 manner.
This Masters win did not come easy, as PRX once had a standing of 0-3 during the Pacific group stages, with every match being a do-or-die for them. They beat Korea’s DRX 2-0 to qualify for Masters Toronto, but ultimately failed to win against the eventual Stage 1 Winners, RRQ 2-3.
The Train Has Arrived at Toronto Station
Entering the swiss stage, PRX went up against EMEA’s #2 seed, Team Heretics, dominating them with a 2-0 scoreline.
A familiar face met them at the second stage, with the scoreline eventually being 0-2 with Pacific’s own GENG winning. With everything being on the line, PRX had one more win before being able to make it into the playoffs stage.
They were down 0-1 against EMEA’s Team Liquid, losing a 8-4 lead. They managed to force a Map 3, after dominating the second map sunset with a final score of 13-5.
The fight was not over yet even if the third map, Lotus, had a 11-1 half in favor of PRX. Team Liquid was able to put up a fight and managed to bring the game into overtime, with PRX winning 14-12.
Track by track, game by game, they dominated the upper bracket, winning against G2, Sentinels, and Wolves without dropping a single map, heading to the Grand Finals from the Upper Brackets.
On the other side, FNATIC saw a long hard fought battle, surviving the lower brackets to meet Paper Rex for the Masters Toronto trophy.
An intense grand finals with two of the four maps going into overtime, with Icenox even seeing a triple OT, it would be a story book ending as Paper Rex finally raised the trophy.
Indonesian superstar and long time Paper Rex flex player, Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto, was ultimately named as the finals MVP playing 3 different agents and having an overall stats of 81/75/32.
Philippines’ very own Patrick “PatMen” Mendoza, who played his first international Valorant tournament, also had an excellent showing, with an overall stats of 67/72/24, truly proving how deserving he is to play at a tier 1 level.
