The Paper Rex (PRX) express came to a screeching halt on the last stop of the Valorant Masters London run following a 2-3 heartbreaker against eventual champion Leviatán Esports (LEV) at the Copper Box Arena in London last Sunday, June 21.
After a dominating start on Fracture (13-2), the Pacific giants engaged in a see-saw battle against the young Americas squad. They dropped Split (6-13) before taking a comeback win on Breeze (13-11) while LEV returned the favor on Ascent (11-13) and ran away with the title on the final map of the tournament, Lotus (5-13).
Ilia “something” Petrov was at the forefront of the fast-paced PRX squad, mounting 80 kills across five maps and generating 20 of his team’s 54 First Bloods, while initiator Adrian “invy” Reyes followed closely as the top performer of the Pacific crew during the last two maps as Sova and Skye, respectively.
For Leviatán, it was 18-year-old rookie Bruno “Neon” Rodríguez who did the heavy lifting after rotating among four agents to produce a kill-death-assist total of 79/64/24 to complete the upset and be named Finals Most Valuable Player.
This marked the second consecutive runners-up finish for the Singapore-based organization in a Masters competition after their Finals sweep at the hands of Nongshim Redforce in Masters Santiago last March.
Under pressure
PRX team captain Khalish “d4v41” Rusyaidee was quick to take responsibility for the loss, especially after being limited to a mere seven kills on Lotus.
“They [Leviatán] played good as a team. Personally, my performance was really bad, I would say and that’s on me,” he said in an interview after the game.
The 27-year-old veteran acknowledged the decline of PRX chemistry during the closing moments of the series. In the second half of Ascent, they saw their 9-5 round lead torched by an 8-1 run by LEV to tie the series with two maps apiece as a result of rushing their plays.
“Toward the end [of Ascent], we’re kind of like so obvious and it ends up being in that trap, they were rotating fast and we’re still committing maybe due to desperation and tunnel vision,” Rusyaidee said.
For PRX head coach Alexandre “alecks” Sallé, it was the mounting expectation that got the better of the experienced squad heading into the decider.
“The mood was fine; I mean they are confident going in [the last map], it’s just sometimes the pressure of a fifth map gets really tough and it’s something that we have to solve,” he said.
He, however, pointed out that emotions were the biggest aspect that further pushed the team’s downfall after managing only a single round in their first half of Lotus.
“I felt like today we were desperate to win,” said the French tactician. “Today is one of those days where we forget everything that we have practiced, and everyone’s trying to win the game [individually] for the team and it snowballs into terrible mistakes.”
Acknowledging that it was a recurring issue, Sallé said he is shifting focus on maintaining their aggressive playstyle but having contingencies to avoid pressure from falling within the shoulders of a single player to avoid another endgame collapse.
Asked about their perspective of another second-place finish, he responded bluntly: “It feels the same. If you’re not first place, you’re last place. It’s the same for us.”
While enduring a tough loss, assistant coach Ashton Wendler cited the team’s improved resilience and mindset compared with their run in Santiago in terms of bouncing back from their mistakes.
“I think even if Map 5 didn’t go our way, the mental resolve when things get shaky has been a lot better. […] this time around even when things drastically don’t go our way, the guys do a good job of resetting,” said the playmaker.
What’s next for PRX
While facing the sting of defeat once more, Sallé was quick to give some much-needed encouragement to the battle-tested squad. “We’ve shared the stage with a lot of very great opponents. I try to remind the boys that we are proud of the fact that we give them [a good fight] most of the time,” he said.
He said it might be a difficult matter to review their mistakes after back-to-back runners-up finishes, but he added that he viewed the future with optimism, reflecting the team’s “Goldfish” philosophy.
“We’re just gonna do our best again. The beauty of it is that we forget very fast. We forget lessons, but we forget losses as well so we just try again,” he said.
Paper Rex was not leaving Europe empty-handed though. Alongside a hefty sum of $200,000 (roughly ₱12.2 million), they gained enough Championship Points to become the first team to qualify in the year-end tournament Champions Shanghai this September.
The upcoming event is where the squad can show their improvements against the world’s best teams, according to Wendler.
“[We have to] keep that same mentality and that’s the next step hopefully we’ll make for Champs. The team is talented and I want to make another [championship] run, I want to get back so I’m proud of the guys for that and hopefully we’ll learn from this experience and take a step forward,” he said.
PRX now set their sights on their last two major tournaments before Champions, flying to Paris for a weeklong challenge in the Esports World Cup this July.
The team will be joined by Rex Regum Qeon, Global Esports and Nongshim Redforce to represent the Pacific region in a 16-team field competing for the championship and a piece of the $2-million prize pool.
They will return to South Korea to defend their regional throne on the second stage of VCT Pacific, where they look to build on their momentum heading to the culminating event in China.
“So far, I find it really fun being here with the team, it kinda sucks that we lost the Finals, but our journey here was also a really great journey so we hope to do the same thing for Stage 2 and Champions,” said Reyes. CS
