KUALA LUMPUR – Paper Rex’s (PRX) dream of a winning start at the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Masters Madrid were dashed by China’s EDward Gaming (EDG).
PRX lost 2-1 to EDG at the Madrid Arena earlier this morning.
Heading into the game PRX – represented by Malaysian Ahmad Khalish “d4v41” Rusyaidee Nordin, Indonesians Jason “F0rsakeN” Susanto, Aaron “Mindfreak” Leonhart, Cahya “Monyet” Nugraha and Russia’s Ilya “Something” Petrov – had a 3-0 record against their Chinese opponents and were favourites to win.
EDG – represented by Guo “Haodong” Haodong, Wan “Chichoo” Shunzhi, Wang “Nobody” Senxu, Zheng “Zmjjkk”, Zhang “Smoggy” Zhao – did not do themselves any favours after going down 13-8 on PRX’s map pick Sunset.
When the second map Bind started, PRX took a commanding 4-1 lead, which led to EDG coach Lo “AfteR” Wen-hsin calling a timeout to rally his troops.
The pause worked wonders as they went on to string together seven rounds to take the lead and kept that momentum to win the map 13-9 to even the score 1-1.
The China League Kickoff champions did not take their foot off the paddle in the deciding map Split, dominating last year’s Pacific League champions 13-9 on the back of a stellar performance from star player Yongkang who had 30 kills, 16 deaths and 5 assists.
Yongkang said EDG’s first win against PRX means they have evolved and improved since the last time the team played the Singapore-based team
“We were able to play our own game and not get baited to follow their pace, if we can keep doing that we will get better and better.
“This is our destiny and we should not forget that.
“We will keep playing our game no matter who our opponents are next and it will be great,“ said the 20-year-old in a post-game interview.
EDG will next face Pacific League Kickoff winners Gen.G of South Korea tomorrow and PRX will take on Team Heratics from Spain on Monday. – 16 March, 2024