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Strafe’s Match of the Week: Paper Rex battle LOUD in Masters Madrid Elimination Series
On the 22nd of March, this Friday, an elite level match will take place between Paper Rex and LOUD.
SEA’s sole representative, and Pacific’s 2nd seed, Paper Rex, is in for the fight of their lives. Versus them is LOUD, the emerald titans of Brazil. Only one team can continue in Madrid after both teams fell today in elimination series to Gen.G and Sentinels respectively.
Neither team entered Madrid in their absolute form. Paper Rex continue to struggle incorporating new member, Monyet, into their ranks in the absence of their former star duelist and entry Jinggg.
LOUD, meanwhile, had entered Americas as one of the strongest and dominated the majority of the tournament. However, against Gen.G and Sentinels, it has been shown, that gods can absolutely bleed.
Setting the Stage
LOUD has continue their almost untouchable level despite the loss of their star aspas. For the third consecutive year, they are considered one of the strongest teams to come out of the combined Americas region, representing Brazil proudly. They finished Kickoff in 2nd place, taking Sentinels the distance in the Bo5 Grand Finals series.
Their level of tactical depth and undeniably talented roster has allowed them to cut down their opposition swiftly and decisively domestically – except Sentinels. The only team that has proven to be able to beat them, twice. Including last night. Which makes them an incredibly scary adversary, as LOUD is one of the toughest opponents when they are trapped in a corner.
Paper Rex continue their W-Gaming ways, with a new addition to their ranks. Flexibility in composition, a wild tenacity, and willingness to run into the flames, Paper Rex is the embodiment of playing with freedom.
Despite a noticeable dip in form, Paper Rex still managed to make it to 2nd place in the Pacific region, with only Gen.G noticeably putting them in their place repeatedly.
Moreover, in their last two series against Team Heretics and Karmine Corp, Paper Rex has also proven themselves to be another incredibly scary team when trapped into the corner.
With these two beasts clashing tomorrow, it will be a sight to see, which methodology wins out in the end.
Paper Rex vs LOUD Pre-Match Stats: Preview and Prediction
This series is for their tournament lives. Whoever survives this, will have to face the loser of Sentinels vs Gen.G the following series. The loser will see their Madrid journey end there and then.
Both teams have retained a core of 4, however, qck has looked the better integration thus far. Paper Rex’s composition answers have been patchworks for now, temporary solutions that work only precisely because of their level of talent.
Paper Rex has taken a strong liking to Sunset, a map they excel on with their unique brand of composition and ideas. Their tactical use of Sage and Gekko paired together make for a deadly attack side half. They will most likely want to take that map.
However, if they fail to do so, their second option is most likely Bind, a map that they shine on, and one that LOUD has not shown at this event. Alternatively, they could look to head back to Split, however, LOUD is fairly deadly on this map and Paper Rex themselves were just dismantled on it by Gen.G.
For LOUD’s part, their pocket picks have been Breeze and Icebox. Both maps are solid for them and proven as reliable starter map picks.
Assuming Sunset and Icebox is banned, the most likely maps to be played tomorrow will be Bind, Breeze, and Lotus, thus giving the edge to LOUD as Paper Rex have not looked their best on Lotus.
Strafe users have overwhelmingly voted in favor of LOUD, with 75% of the votes.
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Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
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