Paper Rex finally beat their long-time VCT rivals and claim top seed spot

On May 22, Singapore’s Paper Rex finally beat the team often referred to as their “kryptonite” by players and analysts alike. It took them five tries, but PRX can finally say that they’ve overcome the giant hurdle that is DRX.

The VCT Pacific season is coming to a close, with just three days left of competition before the best three teams in the region will travel to Tokyo for Masters in June. More and more surprises seem to be thrown our way during the exciting buildup toward the conclusion of the league’s first season.

One of those surprises came in the form of PRX, who beat DRX 2-0 in dominant fashion and will now be the upper seed in the VCT Pacific grand final next week.

The rivalry between these two teams goes all the way back to 2020 when they faced each other in a smaller tournament called the Royal SEA Cup. They went on to meet again at Masters Berlin in 2021 and Masters Reykjavík in 2022. After the franchising of the VCT leagues, they became regular opponents in VCT Pacific.

For nearly three years, PRX has never been able to take a match win against the Korean superstar team. The most they’ve managed to scrape up was a singular map win in 2022. Despite their losing record, players from both sides are good friends and colleagues, though PRX always had DRX as a thorn in their side.

Now, they met again in the upper bracket of the VCT Pacific League after finishing the regular season as the top two seeds.

Fracture seemed to start off as every other match between the two teams had up until now. Rounds were even, and players were deploying their usual strategies and counter-strategies against one another. However, things suddenly took a turn when the sides switched and PRX absolutely demolished DRX on their attack side.

DRX couldn’t get a single round on defense, leading to a 13-5 win for PRX. This is the best scoreline PRX has had against their rivals to date, as the match they took last year was a close 13-10.

Moving to Bind, PRX again opted for their innovative strategy of putting their duelist player, something, on Reyna. Reyna is an agent seldom picked in the VCT, because she relies so heavily on individual mechanics and kills. But something fits a character like this perfectly, and he outmaneuvered the DRX players around every corner of the map.

Something and his team even succeeded in silencing MaKo, who up until this point has been widely regarded as one of the best controller players in the world. He was able to make very little impact on Viper against PRX’s highly aggressive playstyle.

PRX took Bind again with an impressive scoreline, 13-6.

This is the first time in 2023 that DRX has had their weaknesses exposed on this scale. Though they dropped a few maps during the VCT Pacific regular season, the way PRX read their strategies today was like nothing we’ve seen before. The players on the side of DRX also made some uncharacteristic mistakes today that they will likely be hoping to fix before Masters.

Despite DRX having to face another match before they can move forward to a potential rematch with PRX in the grand finals, both teams have already secured their spots in Masters Tokyo. What lies ahead is the concern that PRX’s dominance in this match might have given teams from the Americas and EMEA a clear path forward to take the Korean team down.

DRX will now play the winner of the lower bracket match between T1 and Gen.G to see if they can advance to the grand finals.

PRX are sitting comfortably, knowing they have the advantage in the grand finals matchup after securing the top seed after finally taking down their biggest rivals.