Paper Rex and Gen.G have booked spots at VALORANT Masters Madrid following victories over T1 and DRX, respectively, in the semi-finals of VCT Pacific KICKOFF.
SOUTH KOREA – The first two teams to qualify for VALORANT Masters Madrid have been found as Paper Rex took down T1 and Gen.G dethroned domestic rivals DRX in the semi-finals of VCT Pacific KICKOFF. The pair will be accompanied by six other teams from Americas, EMEA, and China, with the decider matches scheduled for next week on Thursday (EMEA), Friday (CN), and Saturday (Americas).
Securing their place as the first team to qualify for Madrid, Paper Rex triumphed over T1 with a 2-0 victory in the best-of-three semi-final series.
The reigning Pacific champions struck first with a closely contested 16-14 scoreline on their pick of Split to lead in the series, with the side going on to close things out following a comfortable 13-6 showing on their opponent’s map choice of Ascent.
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The other semi-final featured Gen.G, who had to endure a more challenging path by navigating through 14 maps throughout the group stage and play-in stage to reach the top four, and DRX, who achieved wins against DetonatioN FocusMe and Talon Esports en route to the semi-final.
DRX initially appeared to be slightly better in the early stages of Bind, concluding the first half with a 7-5 scoreline. However, Gen.G orchestrated a comeback in the final four rounds of regulation, forcing the game into overtime and ultimately securing a 14-12 victory. The subsequent map, Lotus, ended up being a walk in the park for Gen.G, who maintained control from the outset and concluded the map with a 13-8 score.
DRX’s failure to qualify for VALORANT Masters Madrid marks the Vision Strikers core’s first absence from an international event since Masters Berlin 2021.
If I had a penny every time Kim “Lakia” Jong-min and Kang “solo” Keun-chul beat the Vision Strikers core for a ticket to Masters, I’d have two pennies. Which is not much, but it’s weird that it happened twice. They fell short of qualifying for international events only twice – first for Reykjavík, where they lost to NUTURN in Challengers Korea 2021, and later for Madrid where Gen.G got the better of them today.
On the other side of the table, the qualification comes as an invaluable boost for Gen.G, who will attend their inaugural international event since the team’s creation aside from LOCK//IN.
The already-qualified teams, Paper Rex and Gen.G, are set to face each other once more in the grand finals of VCT Pacific KICKOFF, where they will vie for victory in one more game to determine who will secure the three Pacific circuit Points. These points will ultimately contribute to Champions qualification at the end of the season.
The team list for VALORANT Masters Madrid currently looks as follows:
| 🇸🇬 Paper Rex | 🇰🇷 Gen.G |
| Americas #1 | Americas #2 |
| CN #1 | CN #2 |
| EMEA #1 | EMEA #2 |
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Cover photo courtesy of VCT Pacific
