After a painfully close loss to Team Secret in week two of the 2023 VCT Pacific season, Paper Rex are back in the win column with a dominant performance against T1 in week three. Not only did the team secure a decisive win, but they were able to bring in their star substitute Ilya “something” Petrov and let him shine.
Prior to the start of the series, Paper Rex opted for a risky move, putting long-time in-game leader Benedict “Benkai” Tan on the bench and subbing in a cracked Jett player in the form of something. Without their in-game shotcaller, Paper Rex went with a basic but effective strategy of “f0rsaken and something go kill.”
The substitute put on a dazzling display of Jett prowess, finishing with 18 kills and only eight deaths, winning six out of his eight opening duels. He was able to flourish in due part to a supreme performance from the team’s usual duelist, Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto, who switched to Killjoy but still put up incredible numbers: 26 kills against only nine deaths, 277 points of damage per round, and four-for-four in opening duels. But while f0rsakeN put up the better numbers, something came away with the bigger highlight after a ludicrous round with Jett knives.
With a sub making their debut in place of their IGL, and on T1’s map pick, Paper Rex dominated Pearl 13-3. Before moving to Fracture, Paper Rex swapped Benkai back in for something and moved f0rsaken back to his duelist role, and the team won the second map of the series decisively as well, 13-6. It was a series to forget for T1, though, especially their duelists: Sayaplayer and ban each took on Jett in the series, but only put up a combined 11 kills with her across two maps.
But VCT Pacific fans might be treated to an all-time Jett battle in the near future, with Paper Rex set to take on Jung “Foxy9” Jae-sung next week. Something is certainly looking forward to it, but said today that it would be an “easy fight.”
Paper Rex and DRX do battle on Saturday, April 15, at 4am CT.
