Paper Rex sweep FULL SENSE 3-0, bringing home the VCT Pacific Stage 1 title
Paper Rex cap off their Lower Bracket run with a Grand Final victory at the VCT Pacific Stage 1 Finals in Ho Chi Minh City.
VIETNAM – With their 3-0 sweep over FULL SENSE in the VCT Pacific Stage 1 Grand Finals at the Thiskyhall Sala Convention Center in Ho Chi Minh City on May 17, Paper Rex have officially lifted their fourth regional trophy since the start of the VCT Pacific league in 2023.
The Finals MVP was Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto, with an average combat score (ACS) of 266 and VLR 2.0 rating of 1.24 in the Grand Finals.
PRX were Group Omega’s #1 seed heading into the playoffs, with a 4W-1L record. Gen.G were the only team that bested them during the Stage 1 group stage.
During the first round of their playoffs and at the same time the London qualification match, PRX were defeated by Global Esports 1-2 and fell to the Lower Bracket. However, they eventually qualified to the Ho Chi Minh City Finals after eliminating KIWOOM DRX in 5-6th place. In Ho Chi Minh City, they grabbed Pacific’s third and final ticket to Masters London after knocking T1 out in 4th place.
The Lower Final consisted of a PRX and GE rematch, the fifth time these two teams faced each other so far this season but the first time in a best-of-five. The Southeast Asian powerhouse pulled off a 3-0 sweep to eliminate GE in 3rd place and advancing to the grand finals.
PRX’s last hurdle were FULL SENSE, a team that up until that point, had not dropped a single map in the playoffs. The Thai side had a two-map ban advantage as the first Grand Finalists coming in from the Upper Bracket.
FS kicked off Map 1, their pick of Pearl, with a pistol round win which culminated in a 7-5 half. Despite FS securing another pistol round in the second half, PRX shifted the momentum in their favour by winning seven rounds in a row to eventually close out the map 13-9.
PRX’s pick of Lotus was Map 2 and a similar pattern to Map 1 was seen. Despite winning both pistol rounds, FS struggled to keep up with PRX in the second half. This time, PRX took 6 maps in a row to claim their map pick 13-10.
At this point, Fracture was the only thing standing between PRX grabbing the Stage 1 title and FS keeping their dreams of a reverse sweep alive. After a nail-biting 6-6 first half which extended to a 10-10 scoreline in the second half, PRX dug deep to clinch 3 round wins in a row. This brought an end to the Grand Final as PRX took Fracture 13-10, sweeping two teams back-to-back in a BO5 to bring home the VCT Pacific Stage 1 trophy.
"I'm very happy how we played and we're gonna bring this forward to London."
This Stage 1 victory has proved valuable for PRX as they will get to skip the entire group stage in Masters London and get seeded directly to the playoffs. Furthermore, a Stage 1 win translates to an automatic qualification to this year’s Esports World Cup, allowing them to bypass the regional Qualifiers entirely.
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Cover photo courtesy of VCT Pacific
Adrian "invy" Reyes