The destined rematch: Paper Rex and EDward Gaming face off at Valorant Champions 2023

10 Jul

Ganesh Jadhav

The final group stage opening matches of Valorant Champions 2023 concluded last night. The Group A consisting of EDward Gaming, Giants, KRU esports and Paper Rex played their opening matches yesterday. The day started with the debut of Paper Rex along with their star something. Followed by Giants taking on the crowd favorite EDward Gaming and ZmjjKK.

The Debut:

The game was something’s International LAN debut. With all the eyes on him and his debut, something talks about the pressure “it’s not about the pressure, it’s just forgetting how to play on the stage. For the first five or six rounds on Split, I was a bit shaky, bit nervous, but I thought I should calm down so”

KRU’s determination:

In the game, KRU displayed heavy resistance to their opponents, but Paper Rex appeared too strong. Despite their attempts, KRU could not hold up to Paper Rex’s aggression and eventually caved in to lose the game 13-7, 13-8.

After the game, KRU’s head coach Atom talking about facing Paper Rex said “Paper Rex plays a completely different style from VCT Americas. It was hard for us to get in the rhythm and in the match and how to react to how they play. They were superior than us, that’s why they won”

KRU’s opponent for the elimination match was decided with the following match between Giants and EDward Gaming. KRU Klaus said “it’d be a complicated match up. But I’d like to face EDG a little bit more.”

Alecks Afterthoughts:

Despite the one-sided scoreline and a 2-0 victory, KRU and Keznit displayed some signs of life during Pearl, when they started stringing together rounds, PRX Coach alecks called a timeout which helped Paper Rex close the map. When asked about what he discussed with the team during the timeout, Alecks said “We didn’t want to retake B anymore, we wanted to stop them from walking up B”. This refers to KRU winning multiple rounds with their slow executions on B where they simply walked up and exploded on the site.

PRX alecks also talks about the following match and the opponent he’d rather face: “I think EDG will win but of course we prefer to play Giants. Because we play against EDG all the time and it is harder to play against the team that comes from your region. But I am rooting for EDG though”

The “Giants” Slayer:

The Giants vs. EDward Gaming followed the Paper Rex dominance. Compared to the first game, The Giants - EDG game was anything but one-sided. The game stretched on for three maps. The first map itself closed out on a score of 15-13 and amongst other things showcased the individual prowess of EDG and the heavy preparation of Giants. Despite the clutches from EDG nobody and Haodong, Giants won the first map. Bind was similarly closer with EDG and ZmjjKK stealing the spotlight with his amazing operator skills on defense. The win on Bind from EDG forced a third map. EDward Gaming secured the early lead during the first half and converted it into a strong 13-8 win in the second, thus winning the series.

Pipson stress montage.mkv:

During the whole series, EDG won some unbelievable rounds, almost every clutch favored EDG. Leading to the round losses which were unexpected. PipsoN, the Giants coach was visibly frustrated during the rounds and was caught live aging with the stress.

After the game PipsoN said “The game was super super close. We were losing almost all the clutches. If anyone has the stats, but from the feeling it was like 80-20 in their favor. We had an understanding of how they wanna play, especially on Split on attack. It allowed us to close the map because we were winning every attack round almost. So yeah Clutches. It was the same with Chinese teams yesterday, where NRG had 21 First kills and still lost 0-2. I think we will comeback and we will review what we were doing wrong in those clutch situations. Next time we will comeback stronger.”

Before the game, Giants IGL Rhyme said EDG is currently overrated, after the game when asked about his thoughts he said “My answer won’t change even though we lost. They are not top three/four in the world. Yes they are good, I won’t discredit them for that but I still think they are beatable by both the teams. We could’ve beat them too. The game was super close and could’ve gone both ways”

Declaration of war:

Talking about the team’s performance, EDG’s Coach says “I think 5/10 for our performance today. We are not really satisfied with how the team performed today” Talking about the overextension from EDG players, Coach says “I think we did decently in terms of overextension. Because sometimes you need to do some aggressive plays, there are rounds you have to do them.”

Finally, ZmjjKK, one of the most adored players from EDG was asked about facing Paper Rex and something and he said “I am definitely very hyped to have a rematch with them on the international stage. But I don’t have anything to say to him personally. Just want to face them and show them what we got and show them our power”

With the stage set, Paper Rex and EDward Gaming meet once again. This is the third time the teams would face each other on the international stage. Both teams are insanely talented and are ready to face each other. The game will be the last game of today.