A strong showing on Sunset was not enough to push Paper Rex to victory as they suffered a reverse sweep at the hands of Fnatic, 1-2, in the semifinals of the Esports World Cup (EWC) Valorant tournament on July 12 at Boulevard Riyadh City in Saudi Arabia.

Paper Rex displayed shards of  brilliance from their Masters Toronto grand finals win on the opening map Sunset, 13-10, the day before but were unable to contain Fnatic, the No. 1 seed from the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Their opponent took over in Ascent and Split, 13-3 and 13-8, respectively.

“We decided to open [Ascent] and still ban Haven,” Patrick “PatMen” Mendoza, Paper Rex’s Filipino rookie, said in the postgame interview regarding the choices during the picks and bans.

Mendoza notched a team-high 18 assists in the losing effort.

In-game leader Jason “F0rsaken” Susanto led W Gaming’s gallant stand with a 51/47/14 Kill-Death-Assist (KDA) statline in the three-map marathon, while Ilya “something” Petrov and Khalish “d4v41” Rusyaidee chipped in 40 and 37 eliminations, respectively.

On the flipside, rookie Kajetan “kaajak” Haremski led the way for the Black-and-orange with a series-high 56/40/8 KDA, closely followed by teammate Emir “alfajer” Ali Beder with 55 kills and an Average Combat Score of 263.

“They’re just the better team for now, they were really good,” said Mendoza, the initiator.

Shifting playgrounds

Map picks became a defining factor in the rematch with Ascent and Split, both winning maps for Fnatic, not played during the first meeting of the two squads at Masters Toronto.

Paper Rex wasted no time getting into the fray, firing up a 4-0 start with Rusyaidee scoring a clutch and a triple kill at rounds three and four, leading to an 8-4 advantage at halftime. Wang “Jinggg” Jing Jie’s 3k heroics at round 16 fueled his team to string three consecutive rounds afterwards, with a knife kill coming from Susanto pushing them to match point, 12-6.

A timely outplay from Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov signaled the start of a 4-0 Fnatic counter run, which went for naught as they crumbled at the A site from Paper Rex’s defenses at the 23rd round.

Tides turned swiftly against the Pacific-based squad in Ascent as Beder and Khromov connived for 24 of Fnatic’s 46 first half kills, spelling disaster as Paper Rex surrendered 6 consecutive rounds at the endgame, sending the series toward Split.

With momentum on their side, Fnatic replicated their domination in the deciding map as they buried Paper Rex in another 6-round hole, 3-9.

A win in pistols gave the Masters Toronto champions sufficient footing to spark a 3-0 run to trim the gap to 6-9. The deficit was too big to overcome for Paper Rex. Boaster rallied his stalwarts to string a 4-2 sprint heading to series point, with the team seeing their back-to-back title hopes dwindle down as the clock expired at the 21st round.

Wake-up call

While bowing out of contention and seeing their key crushed, there are still silver linings for Paper Rex. One such is performing in high spirits despite the short break between Masters Toronto and Esports World Cup.

“We didn’t expect to be on top because everybody is still tired after that [Masters] Toronto run since it’s just a week before EWC,” Mendoza said.

On another note, it was a sign for them to sharpen their tools as Stage 2 of VCT Pacific kicks off on July 15. “Maybe this loss is [a] wake-up call for us on what’s needed to be [done] better and be ready for Stage 2,” Mendoza said.

Paper Rex will close their EWC run in a battle for third against either Gen.G or Team Heretics on July 13, 4 p.m. (Philippine time). Fnatic awaits the winner of the same matchup in the grand finals at 7:15 p.m.

Read more: Paper Rex shut down Sentinels, advance to Esports World Cup semis