Paper Rex
An incredible matchup between EMEA’s Guild and APAC’s Paper Rex was in place at the VCT Masters Copenhagen playoffs yesterday morning. These two esports bets juggernauts were the first teams to face each other in the playoff stage. Guild unexpectedly made a flawless run through the group stage while PRX was provided a bye directly to the playoffs due to their 1st place finish within their respective region (APAC). After a dominant first game and an incredibly close second, PRX sealed the deal taking the victory yesterday 2-0 over Guild.
Going into the match, one of PRX’s best players, unfortunately, tested positive for COVID. F0rsakeN, who reportedly has been experiencing heavy symptoms, played from a completely separate room outside of the main venue for the match. As obvious as it may seem, we knew that with one of their star players under the weather, the other players on PRX absolutely had to step up their performance.
Guild have been on a great run at this point in VCT Masters Copenhagen through the group stage, being the first team officially to qualify for the playoffs stage. They came into the tournament as absolute underdogs, ranked between sixth and eighth on most VCT power rankings from experts and the community.
The VALORANT odds projected Guild as the weakest European representative in the tournament behind tournament favorites Fnatic and FPX. Guild decided to land on Ascent as the first map of the series, where PRX actually managed to take the first two rounds. Despite a small comeback moment from Guild in the third round when they were ablwe to buy rifles for the entire team, PRX went on to take six rounds consecutively burying any kind of chance Guild had to win their own choice of map.
F0rsakeN didn’t seem to have a dip in his performance due to his health state, executing to perfection what he is known for, lurks and unpredictable teleports on Chamber that took Guild on a wild ride. Nevertheless, all his teammates were contributing to the cause, mainly the kills department where at the end was evenly distributed across the PRX roster. The first half ended with PRX up 8-4.
The momentum just kept going in favor of PRX in the second half of Ascent. They were able to take three rounds in a row, and once F0rsakeN went into the zone, it was absolutely over for Guild. F0rsakeN got an easy opening angle which resulted in an early pick, while Jingg followed up guns blazing on Raze to pick off all of the Guild players for the third consecutive round. Guild was not able to come back from this massive disadvantage and the final map score line ended 13-4 on Ascent.
For the second map choice PRX decided on Fracture. Guild were finally able to up their tempo resulting in a match point at 12-11, nevertheless the 24th round resulted in both teams battling for kills, finishing in PRX being able to get a defuse without much contest from their enemies. Fracture was set to go into overtime. At the end PRX came back on their best map, and got the two rounds they needed to finish the series.
PRX will now move on to the upper bracket to battle Fnatic. Their next game is set to start on July 17th at 10am CT. In the meantime, Guild moves into the lower bracket, where they still have a chance to come back in the tournament. They will play on July 16th at 10am CT.
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