Out of all the VALORANT agents in regular rotation at VCT Masters Tokyo, one of the most unexpected comes from a substitute player helping his team reach the top three. Patiphan “CGRS” Posri was called up on late notice and he brought in his Gekko-main ways to help challenge the best—and in many cases succeeded.
After losing star duelist and regional finals MVP Ilya “something” Petrov due to visa and travel issues, CGRS filled into the initiator role despite his role as a content creator for Paper Rex. He was the sixth man in case of issues like this, but the coaching staff molded him into a Gekko main after the agent’s release, just in case he became the meta. Expectations weren’t high for the squad, but CGRS and Paper Rex surprised everyone with a deep run in Tokyo, making Gekko work with plenty of simple combos that led to easy round wins.
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So far, there have been two maps that Paper Rex has run the Gekko on consistently: Bind and Lotus. Even with the Gekko picked, a lot of these plays work based on two main objectives—ultimate combos and ability retrieval.
To start, we have a play that CGRS has done almost every time Paper Rex goes to the C site on Lotus attack. Just behind the small wall on the right side of the choke, CGRS throws his Dizzy blind directly up just as the round begins. If it pings, even if the blind doesn’t hit, it lets his team know that someone is there. Then, he can easily retrieve it just where he used it, allowing for another use later in the round.
The two key things to take into your ranked games with this are to use blind to clear space but also to peek at corners, obtain information, and easily retrieve the blind for another use afterward.
As for ultimate combos, we have some nasty ones that CGRS did with teammates Khalish “d4v41” Rusyaidee, Wang “Jinggg” Jing Jie, and Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto—all at different moments.
When using Gekko’s ultimate Thrash, it sends a creature out to chase enemies, gain information, and possibly detain someone for an easy kill. Enemies can shoot it down, but it takes a lot of ammunition to do so alone.
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So, combo that with Skye’s ultimate Seekers, which sends floating globules that seek enemies and blind them, forcing enemies to have to choose which one to shoot. Unless the entire team commits to shooting the ultimate, they leave themselves open to further utility use or a wide swing.
The same idea is behind other abilities that have to be shot down, like Raze’s Boom Bot. In this example, an enemy takes time bringing down the Boom Bot but cannot also deal with Thrash, getting detained and pushed for an easy kill.
Just afterward, CGRS uses Wingman to defuse the spike in the retake, but f0rsakeN uses Cypher’s ultimate Neural Theft, granting vision of the enemy team with the call coming they are all off-site. Wingman starts the defuse, forcing enemies to swing into the pushing Paper Rex, putting the attacking team in a tough position.
Lastly, the way the Dizzy flash works allows for some sneaky blinds over walls. Where the first Dizzy tip above was for the attack, this one is a key example of how to use it on defense to spot enemies, blind them, and allow your team to collapse on them. This one from A Tree is nasty and allows Paper Rex to push easily and CGRS to get through the door with all his utility.
That doesn’t even include the molly lineups you can find with Gekko, which force enemies outside of cover into open space. While it didn’t get them the Masters Tokyo title, CGRS’ Gekko play was a key reason the team made it to the top three.
The team will return in Aug. 2023 to contest for the VCT Champions title, and while CGRS’ short stint made Paper Rex’s run in Tokyo truly memorable, many will be excited to see something’s return to the squad.
