Paper Rex and its rising Russian VALORANT superstar Ilya “something” Petrov have confirmed that he will not be available to play for the remainder of VCT Masters Tokyo, citing the ongoing visa issues that have prevented him from playing up until now.
Something confirmed today, just hours after Paper Rex’s lower bracket victory against the impressive EDward Gaming roster, that he is “100 [percent] unable to go to Masters Tokyo,” and added that he and the organization are doing their “best to prepare for the Champions in LA.” Paper Rex followed up with a tweet saying the organization is focusing on “securing a visa” so that something can compete at Champions.
Paper Rex have been without their superstar duelist for the entirety of VCT Masters Tokyo, something the team has been preparing for since the start of June. It was then that the organization opted to fully move former in-game leader Benedict “Benkai” Tan to the bench. There was hope at the time that Paper Rex would expedite something’s travel documents, in a similar move to what Evil Geniuses pulled off to get Max “Demon1” Mazanov to Tokyo, but to no avail for Paper Rex.
Without him, though, Paper Rex have still managed to put on an incredibly impressive performance, ensuring a top-four spot with wins over both DRX and EDward Gaming. The team still has to go through NRG in the lower bracket before the two-day break while the event switches venues to the Makuhari Messe for the lower final and grand final. Patiphan “CGRS” Posri has more than answered the call since moving from sub to starter.
Still, the important thing for Paper Rex isn’t to secure a win at Masters Tokyo but to secure those travel documents for something in time for Champions in August. As well as CGRS has performed, something is clearly the difference maker for this team, as shown by their incredible midseason turnaround during VCT Pacific after he was fully integrated into the starting lineup.
