Paper Rex has finished its Masters tournament in Tokyo, Japan, on a high note. Against the odds, they emerged as the first Valorant team from Southeast Asia to finish third in Masters competition and besting teams from other regions who were highly favoured to win it.
Several interesting things about Paper Rex happened during this competition. Some were changes that are frequently talked by audiences and pundits of the Masters competition and some were unique stuff which earned them some new fans while in Japan in no time. We’ve rounded up five interesting things that have made Paper Rex one of the most talked about Valorant teams in the last few months.
1.Surprise signing won them the Pacific League 2023
Paper Rex was one of the most talked teams during Valorant Masters Tokyo 2023 thanks to their previous achievements. They fought against heavyweights in the 2023 VCT Pacific League in Seoul, Korea to advance to the Masters competition.
Paper Rex made a difficult decision two months before the Pacific League began by benching in-game leader Benedict “Benkai” Tan and signing Ilya “something” Petrov from a Japanese team Sengoku Gaming, replacing Jason “f0rsaken” Susanto as their main duelist. Some of their fans were highly critical about their choice, given that something came from a less competitive squad.
Paper Rex’s outstanding performance in the Pacific League dispelled those worries. Despite the fact that they played without their in-game leader and had to quickly change their strategy, they played consistently and made it to the grand finals, defeating elite teams such as Gen.G, T1, and DRX. Something’s gameplay was one of the highlights of Pacific League 2023.
In the regular season, the 21-year-old Russian player recorded a Valorant rating of 1.19 points, which went up to 1.22 points during the playoffs, surpassing the previous winner Kim “Mako” Myeong-kwan (DRX), who scored 1.18 points. Something also finished with an Average Combat Score of 230.6 points, one of the top four in the tournament.
2. cgrs the supersub
Their euphoria of Pacific League 2023 didn’t last long. Even though the victory gave them the ticket to the Masters competition in Tokyo, their ace, something, had to stay in Singapore since he was unable to obtain his Japanese Visa on time due to the situation between Russia and Ukraine.
This situation forced Paper Rex to move forsaken back to his duelist position and play with their stand-in Patiphan “cgrs” Posri as the initiator for the Masters Tokyo. Fans were skeptical about the latter, considering he barely played any competitive Valorant since joining Paper Rex in October 2022. However, pundits were positive about him, given his track records as one of the best CS:GO/PUBG players in SEA.
The pundits’ forecasts came true. Cgrs ended up as one of the biggest surprise of Tokyo Masters. Despite his status as a content creator of the Paper Rex team, he proved that he still got plenty of firepower to excel at any competitive fps game. The Thai player emerged as the highlight of the playoffs multiple times, most notably when he demolished Edward Gaming, in the lower bracket quarter-finals.
Paper Rex’s journey came to an end as they were up against debutant Evil Geniuses. They did not, however, go home without putting up a fight. Cgrs and his teammates forced EG to play hard in a best of five match, which EG won 3-2.
3.400 push-ups challenge
The thrilling match between Paper Rex and Evil Geniuses wasn’t the only exciting spectacle for visitors to Masters Tokyo at Makuhari Messe. Three pundits representing Indonesia, Antonius “Son” Wilson, Lukas “Kocul” Yanto, and Jamal “Jamalism” Hasby, became the highlight with their antics on the sidelines of that match.
The pundits claimed that they would complete a pushup challenge for every round Paper Rex won. The challenge turned into some kind of punishment for the three of them, since Paper Rex won 41 rounds from the first to the fourth game. There were 410 pushups completed by the three casters in total.
4.Mom buff return
Paper Rex carried on with their “family buff” in the Tokyo Masters tournament. It was started with Ahmad “d4v4i” Khalish Rusyaidee who made a headline when he invited his mother from Malaysia to to watch him in the grand final of Pacific League in Seoul, and eventually won the match. Same thing then happened in Tokyo, with Wang “Jinggg” Jie’s mom being talked a lot in social media.
She was highly publicised during the playoffs. She came to Makuhari Messe during the lower bracket semifinals match between Paper Rex and NRG. Paper Rex eventually won the battle 2-1, and Jingg was voted MVP in the last round. The mother buff is definitely something that should not be taken lightly!
5.Becoming the third professional Valorant team with highest earning
Third place finish in the Tokyo Masters wasn’t Paper Rex’s only major accomplishment of the season. According to the recent statistics, the money generated from the two big competitions has propelled them to third position among the top five highest earning Valorant teams.
Paper have amassed $225,000 from Pacific and Masters 2023 combined, bringing their lifetime total to $618,368. This number has surpassed big Valorant teams such as Sentinels from the United States ($577,500) and Acend from Europe ($542,740). Of course, their rewards might increase if they perform well in the Valorant Champions tournament, which will be held in Los Angeles, California, next August. Naturally, the numbers may increase if they able to maintain their consistency and go further in the next Valorant Champions, which will be held in Los Angeles, California, in August.
