Marking their strong commencement at the VALORANT Champions 2023, Singapore-based VALORANT team Paper Rex trounced Latin America’s KRÜ Esports by 2-0 during their kickoff match of the Group Stage on Thursday, the 10th of August.
As the peak seed of the VALORANT Pacific League, Paper Rex was pitted against KRÜ, who were the victors of the Americas Last Chance Qualifier, in the inaugural Group A match on day four of the Group Stage.
The series started off favorable for Paper Rex as they led 8-4 as the Attacking side in the first game at Split. Post the side switch, the Singaporean team continued their winning streak and ended the second half 5-3, securing a 13-7 win at Split.
Wang “Jinggg” Jing Jie from Singapore and Russian Ilya “something” Petrov were the star performers for Paper Rex in game one, both contributing 19 kills and four assists against their 15 and 14 deaths, respectively.
Paper Rex initiated game two at Pearl with impressive momentum, securing eight consecutive wins on the Attacking side. Despite this, KRÜ rallied to win the last four rounds of the first half and the subsequent two rounds post the side switch.
Yet, Paper Rex managed to maintain their lead by taking the next three rounds. Although KRÜ managed to secure two further rounds, Paper Rex prevailed, claiming rounds 20 and 21, resulting in a 13-8 victory at Pearl and a 2-0 series sweep.
“Something” continued to impress with his performance in game two, contributing 15 kills (including five first kills) and four assists against 13 deaths. The rest of the Paper Rex team also performed commendably, with Aaron “mindfreak” Leonhart spearheading with a 19/10/9 KDA while Khalish “d4v41” Rusyaidee and Jingg also contributed with 17/10/11 and 16/12/6 statlines.
After their win over KRÜ, Paper Rex will be advancing to the Winner’s Match of Group A taking place on Friday, the 11th of August, where they will go against the winner of the inaugural match between China’s EDward Gaming and Spain’s Giants. For a spot in the Playoffs, it is crucial for the Singaporean team to win this match.
On the other hand, KRÜ moves to the Elimination Match of Group A scheduled for Saturday, the 12th of August, where they will be meeting the team that loses the EDward Gaming-versus-Giants match.
The VALORANT Champions 2023 Group Stage is taking place from the 6th to the 13th of August, where four groups comprising four teams each will compete in a double-elimination GSL format, and the top two teams from each group will be moving forward to the Playoffs.
The Playoffs for the VALORANT Champions 2023 will have two stages: the first to be conducted from the 16th to the 20th of August, and the final leg is scheduled from the 24th to the 26th of August.
The competing teams are vying for the title of this year’s VALORANT world champions and the major share of US$1 million from the tournament’s US$2.25 million prize pool.
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