KUALA LUMPUR – Paper Rex (PRX) defeated 2022 World Champions Loud in the lower bracket semi-final, keeping their hopes of winning the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Masters Madrid alive.
Not many gave them a chance against the Brazilian powerhouse, but PRX triumphed 2-0 at the Madrid Arena earlier this morning.
The team was sent to the lower bracket after getting swatted aside by Gen.G 2-0 on Thursday.
However, the Singapore-based team – represented by Malaysian Ahmad Khalish “d4v41” Rusyaidee Nordin, Indonesians Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto, Aaron “mindfreak” Leonhart, Cahya “Monyet” Nugraha and Russian Ilya “something” Petrov – surprised everyone after taking Loud’s map pick Ascent 13-11.
Momentum was on the side of last year’s Pacific League champions going into its map pick Sunset.
Americas’ second seeds, Loud – represented by Argentine Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro, Brazilians Gabriel “qck” Lima, Felipe “Less” Basso, Cauan “cauanzin” Pereira and Arthur “tuyz” Vieira – could not contend with PRX’s dominance, losing the map 13-8 and the match.
The defeat marks the end of the former world champions’ campaign in Madrid with a respectable fourth-place finish.
PRX’s Ahmad Khalish said that the defeat to Gen.G in the upper semi-final taught them that most teams put in extra effort to figure out how to defeat them.
“Teams really study us, so we either have to stick with our trademark aggressive play or try to counter them.
“For this match against Loud, we have played them before, so our strategy is just to counter Less (Felipe Basso).
“He has been giving us a lot of trouble before this, so as long as Less is not playing well we are good to go,” he said in a post match interview.
Earlier, in the upper bracket final Gen.G defeated Sentinels 2-1 to book their spot in the team’s first ever Grand Final at an international tournament.
The defeat for the Americas League first seeds means they dropped to the lower bracket final.
“We played the Sentinels in the off-season and they defeated us.
“I think this time we want to prove ourselves, it will be hard as they have been playing really well,” added Ahmad Khalish.
PRX will take on Sentinels later today at 11pm to determine who will challenge Gen.G for the VCT Masters Madrid title early Monday morning. – March 23, 2024