VALORANT Champions 2023: Paper Rex and Evil Geniuses book upper final bout
Paper Rex (PRX) and Evil Geniuses (EG) booked an upper final bout against each other in the VALORANT Champions 2023 playoffs after both teams got past their upper semifinals matchups.
Two important matches that decided the teams heading to the Upper Bracket Finals.@pprxteam and Evil Geniuses are the ones to advance! #VALORANTChampions pic.twitter.com/ihTwMKjQUa
— VCT Pacific @ Champions (@vctpacific) August 20, 2023
The first series of the day went to Paper Rex as they bested LOUD 2-1 in their first-ever pairing.
Game one on Lotus ended 15-13 in overtime as both teams brought chaotic excellence to the table. The game featured an Operator bought as early as in Round 4 (courtesy of Ilya “something” Petrov), a 1HP ace on Round 10 by Wang “Jinggg” Jing Jie, multiple thrifties and clutches from both teams (including a 0.03 second spike detonation in Round 7 that gave PRX the round win), and Judge and Odin plays from both sides.
Unfortunately, LOUD quickly answered back come game two on Split and snuffed out PRX’s plays, eventually equalizing the series 1-1 as LOUD mercilessly took the game 13-2.
In the third game on Pearl, PRX were off to a slow start, going 4-1 behind LOUD, before they found their footing late in the first half and eventually found themselves up two rounds, 7-5, coming into the halftime. Ultimately, PRX took the game, and therefore the series, by ending it 13-10 in Pearl.
The second series of the day ended much quicker relatively to the previous series as EG knocked DRX to the lower bracket after they swept the series 2-0.
During the first game on Fracture, EG stomped DRX 13-9. EG was up 8-4 coming into halftime with Max “Demon1” Mazanov almost reaching the 20-kill benchmark, ending the first half with nineteen kills and six assists with just two deaths. After the first half, DRX never recovered which gave EG the edge in the series.
Then, EG proceeded to continue pummeling DRX and ended the second game on Lotus with a quick 13-4 ending.
With today’s results, Paper Rex and Evil Geniuses will meet each other in the upper bracket finals that is set to happen on August 25, 2023. Meanwhile, the losers for today’s matches all fall down to the lower bracket were FNATIC and EDward Gaming is waiting.
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