Paper Rex have been able to overcome their fears by defeating EDward Gaming to start VALORANT Champions 2022 on a positive note.
They were initially not pleased that they were matched up against EG, but they had no choice but to face their fears and eventually came out victorious with a 2-1 victory in the opening match of the tournament on Wednesday.
It could be recalled that Paper Rex’s Benedict “Benkai” Tan had on the Plat Chat podcast talked about the team’s trauma from playing Chinese CS:GO teams.
That led to the fear when Paper Rex and EDG were placed in the same group for VALORANT Champions. But in a series they weren’t looking forward to, PRX succeeded in getting over what might be the biggest mental roadblock of the entire tournament in the very first match.
With EDG out of the way, it could raise the bar and their confidence level going into their next games.
Coincidentally, the defeat came for EDG, which made their first international appearance in VCT history on Wednesday. It was also the first time that a Chinese team made it to an international tournament.
This could be the reason the fans came out in droves as the match viewership soared to a peak of at least 760,000 views, a new record for the highest viewership for an opening match in any international VCT tournament.
Since they have the fans, the intimidation, and the momentum, many viewers and players alike have taken notice ahead of the match.
This is following their perfect run through the East Asia LCQ lower bracket. They showed how dangerous they can be heading into the competition.
However, with this defeat in their first match of the tournament, teams might be breathing a little easier, even if they still looked incredibly good in their match against PRX.
This will also give other teams the confidence to face them.
In the match that started off on Pearl, EDG went into the lead after five straight rounds.
Not giving up, PaperRex finally put up a round and then kept going, ending the half 6-6. They continued from where they stopped after finding their footing. A patient PRX allowed EDG to push into their holds, which caused a slight slowdown in pace.
With the exchange of strategies, the rest of Pearl went back and forth, ending with a 13-11 win for PRX.
In the second map, both teams settled into one another, while the next two maps were about figuring each other out with more detail. Icebox went in EDG’s direction while PRX struggled for Haven, but they were able to pull out a 13-8 win, ending their first match with a victory against a team they were initially not looking forward to facing.
Written by Oladipupo Mojeed
