Paper Rex Will Go to Masters Santiago After Beating RRQ

Paper Rex will go to Masters Santiago after beating their close rival, Rex Regum Qeon, in the last match of the 2026 VCT Pacific Kickoff.

The two teams are like different sides of a coin, where RRQ started out in a strong form but declined since the upper bracket finals. Paper Rex, meanwhile, lost out quite early but are able to keep holding on in the lower brackets.

Ironically, Paper Rex once lost to RRQ in the upper bracket semifinals, so this match result came out as some sort of late-stage denouement. With Paper Rex winning third place at the Kickoff tournament, they also stole the last ticket to qualify for VALORANT Masters Santiago.

Winning against RRQ 1-3, Paper Rex Will Go to Masters Santiago

The match went quite balanced for both of the teams, as Paper Rex and RRQ traded blows many times. The two teams are fighting closely and are expected to play until the fifth map.

The tides are turning to PRX’s favor now that they played a controlling game on Breeze. RRQ kept fighting hard, but alas, Paper Rex snatched the win.

On the fourth map, Pearl, RRQ had a chance for an equalizer but unfortunately fell short as their rival edged them with a close score of 10-13. Jason “f0rsaken” Susanto became RRQ’s worst nightmare as he played consistently through the match, with a total of 101 kills across 4 maps.

With this result, Paper Rex will go to Masters Santiago with Nongshim RedForce and T1, who previously won their slot from the upper and middle bracket finals. Paper Rex also obtained two Pacific Points.

The only consolation received for RRQ is just a single Pacific Point. It’s not much, but it’s still a solid base for their Stage 1 campaign later.

Paper Rex found chemistry through hardship

During the match’s press conference, Paper Rex’s coach, Alexandre “Alecks” Sallé, applauded the team’s effort to snatch the last ticket to Masters Santiago. He also apologized for giving the team added pressure during the tournament.

“It’s hard to go to the lower bracket really early, but at least we get a run of games to practice. And I think I put the guys through a lot of stress because I made them change comms like five days before, so incredible job, guys,” Alecks said.

Ilia “something” Petrov also added that the team is improving each day to adjust to the tournament’s dynamics.

“Our philosophy is to improve every single day, which is what we did. I’m glad we won this best-of-five match. It was quite tough, I would say. But thank you, Jason, for saving us,” he said.

We also asked something about what makes this match against RRQ different, considering their loss during the upper bracket match. something credited the factor to his team’s cohesion.

“We started playing way better as a team and individually, I would say, in terms of shooting and stuff. We started playing more for the team if you compare us from, like, two weeks ago,” something explains.