Paper Rex, one of the top teams in Southeast Asia has emerged victorious in the KJC Exports Valorant Invitational Tournament. The team who recently came back from VCT Masters held in Berlin earlier in September 2021. They were previously knocked out of the Group Stages after losing both their opening and elimination matches.
Southeast Asian Valorant esports content hub KJC eSports had launched a $5,000 (~£3,652) tournament featuring 18 teams across the region between 30 September to 10 October 2021. The tournament was proudly sponsored by AI performance platform Aim Lab and Gaming chair manufacturer Vertagear. According to the details, the tournament aims to grow esports in the Southeast Asia region and also help to develop the esports organisations pit their skills and talent in this event. The notable A-tier and S-tier teams that were invited to participate were Paper Rex, Alter Ego, Cerberus Esports, and Team Secret. This will also be an opportunity for Paper Rex to showcase their new talent Jinggg who was recently signed from Team SMG. The remaining teams competing in the tournament were:
- Five Ace Esports
- Griffin E-sports
- Onic Esports
- Morph Impact
- UwU
- Louvre
- Kingsmen
- SV Empire
- Nigma Galaxy
- Oasis Gaming
- Sharper Esport
- Foxy Araikordai
- The Infinity Esports
- Cerberus Esports
Paper Rex met Bleed eSports in the Finals after see off their opponents in the Upper Bracket of the Playoffs. Catch the action in Map 3 below!
Paper Rex breezed through to the Finals after swiftly defeated Foxy Araikordai and Louvre 2-0. Bleed eSports on the other hand won over their opponents, Zeal Esports and ONIC Esports, both ending 2-1 in the best of three. Bleed Esports were earlier dominant in their Group Stage and emerged top of their Group having wiped out Five ACE e-Sports and Sharper Esport. In the Finals, Bleed started off well, squeezing off 13:11 in the first map, Ascent. However, they gave away their lead in the second map, Blind, allowing Paper Rex to win 15:13. Paper Rex subsequently gained momentum and breezed through the 3rd map (Breeze) with the last result 13:3.
Bleed relegated to the lower bracket and faced Kingsmen. The first map, Bind got off to a good start for Bleed at 13:6 but the Kingsman team began to show off their fangs in this second match which made the Bleed team a little overwhelmed, but with the good communication and strategy of the Bleed team, they were able to beat the Kingsman team ending 13:10 in Bleed’s favour. Once again, Bleed will face Paper Rex in the Grand Finals.
Grand Finals
After Bleed Esports has won the match against the Kingsman team, Bleed will compete against Paper Rex for the 1st place in the KJC tournament. In the first map, Bind, Bleed could not get the team together and lost 13:5 to Paper Rex. In the second match, Bleed was totally outplayed in Icebox, the newest map rolled out by RiotGames and the match ended 13:2 to Paper Rex. Paper Rex was able to gain control of the deciding match, where PRX Jinggg showed an extraordinary game, being able to penetrate the opponent’s defense so that his team won again with a score of 13-4. Although the Grand Finals was the best of five, the one-sided match ended after three matches.
Paper Rex team won first place taking home USD $3,000, the Bleed team secured the first runner up and the Kingsman team was the second runner up at the KJC Esports VALORANT Invitational.