Paper Rex's lower bracket run continues after it eliminated NRG to set a date with Evil Geniuses tomorrow.
The VCT Pacific champions have been on a superb lower bracket run, having first eliminated EDward Gaming and now, they have sent NRG home to secure a top-three finish at the VCT Masters Tokyo. Paper Rex will now go up against Evil Geniuses in the lower bracket final to determine who will get their rematch against Fnatic.
With this being a rematch for most of the current NRG squad who were on the OpTic Gaming org that lost to PRX at last year's Stage 2 Masters in Copenhagen, many fans saw this series going to all three games and they weren't wrong. The first map was NRG's choice of Pearl, a map they were 2-0 for heading into the series.
And it was a tight contest from the get-go with neither team letting up. Both teams would win no more than two rounds in a row before being stopped by the opposition. At halftime, it was NRG who took a small lead of 7-5, which grew to 9-5 at the start of the second half. But this was where PRX shined, digging deep and clutching up on numerous occasions to win four rounds in a row to tie it up at 9-9.
NRG would go on to win the next two rounds, followed by two more from PRX to still keep things all squared. With just two rounds left, NRG once again retook the lead and was on match point to secure the first map. And if it wasn't for Patiphan "CigaretteS" Posri clutching up with just one second remaining in the last round, that would've been it for NRG but sadly, that wasn't the case and PRX took it to overtime. From there, the momentum had firmly shifted to the Pacific and it wasn't long before PRX won the last two rounds to clean up map one.
PRX chose the second map as Lotus, which they've had varied success so far in the tournament. And with NRG on the attack in game two, they showed just why they cannot be doubted with a dominant first-half performance. NRG claimed 10 rounds out of 12, which includes a seven-round win streak before PRX replied with their own four-game streak. But it wasn't enough as NRG only needed two more wins after that, which would've eventually come soon after.
With things all squared and even, we headed to the last and final map on Bind, a map that both teams only have a 50 per cent success rate in the tournament. And much like map one, it was NRG who took a slim 7-5 lead by halftime. This was down to the likes of Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto securing his second ace of the series in the fourth round. There was also Aaron "mindfreak" Leonhart and JingYing "Jinggg" Lim who managed to get four kills apiece in rounds 10 and six.
As things were still pretty much even, PRX's four-round win streak late in the second half was the difference-maker between both teams. They would go on to trade the last few rounds before PRX got the match point to send them to the lower bracket finals.
