KUALA LUMPUR — Ahmad Khalish ‘d4v41’ Rusyaidee Nordin fell short of winning a e-sport world championship after finishing second with his Singapore-based e-sports team Paper Rex at the Valorant Champions tournament in Los Angeles, California, yesterday.
The Kelantan-born gamer competed in the gaming tournament as part of Paper Rex’s team made up of Indonesians Jason ‘f0rsakeN’ Susanto and Aaron ‘mindfreak’ Leonhart, Singapore’s Wang Jing ‘Jinggg’ Jie and Russia’s Ilya ‘something’ Petrov.
Facing North American team Evil Geniuses (EG) who were looking for revenge, Paper Rex were hot favourites to win having gone through the tournament unbeaten until the Grand Finals, including taking out the former team by 2-1 during the upper bracket final to set themselves for the best of five series finale.
However, EG managed to turn the tide in their favour by winning the Grand Finals at 3-1.
It was a comeback of sorts for EG following their upper bracket final loss, when they first clashed with Valorant Americas league champions LOUD from Brazil in the lower bracket finals winning 3-2 in a best-of-five to set up a rematch with Paper Rex in the Grand Finals.
This is the second Grand Finals that Paper Rex were made to settle for second after being defeated by China’s Fun Plus Phoenix at Valorant Champions Tour: Masters Copenhagen last year.
Despite the defeat, Paper Rex take home US$400,000 (RM1.85 miilion) for their runners-up finish.
Additionally, Ahmad Khalish missed an opportunity to become the second Malaysian to win an e-sports world title.
Hock Chuan ‘ChuaN’ Wong, was the first Malaysian to win a world title in e-sports, representing Chinese team Invictus Gaming, emerged triumphant during the second edition of Defense of the Ancients 2’s (DotA2) The International in 2012.
Ahmad Khalish joins fellow Malaysians Yap ‘xNova’ Jian Wei and Cheng ‘NothingToSay’ Jin Xiang who both finished second at Dota Pro Circuit’s The International tournament in 2018 and 2021 respectively. — August 27, 2023