Paper Rex redeems Lotus woes, eliminates Team Heretics

Continuing in the Valorant Champions 2025 lower bracket, Paris saw both the Masters Toronto and Esports World Cup champions match up for their tournament lives. Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov defeated Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #3 Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish ComeBack Berkcan Şentürk Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius 2-1, with a statement final map of Lotus after losing it in heartbreaking fashion in their previous game against FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Veqaj Sylvain Pattyn Alfajer Emir Ali Beder .

The series started on Ascent, with Paper Rex sticking to their double-Sentinel composition with Jinggg on Sage while Heretics ran double-Duelist with Wo0t on Jett. Heretics took A-site fast and forced an uncomfortable retake from PRX to win the first pistol, and continued that aggression to convert the bonus. Both Duelists from Heretics were preventing that traditional PRX playstyle with their own aggro plays. It took until round six for PRX to win their first defense round, and f0rsakeN helped keep that momentum going the round after. Just as it looked like Paper Rex had recovered, Wo0t showed off just how good he can be on Duelist.

Heretics ended the first half up 8-4, a great attack side for Ascent. Yet, Paper Rex won the second pistol off a great call from d4v41 , starting the second half strong. Heretics prevented the bonus round conversion, but Paper Rex won a 1v2 off of d4v41. Just as it looked like Paper Rex would tie the game, Wo0t and RieNs converted a thrifty to extend a late lead. That couldn't prevent the eventual tie, as the map reached 10-10. Heretics took a late lead off a fight in mid, but a f0rsakeN ace tied it 11-11, and a strong post-plant put PRX on map point. PatMen was the closer as he won a 1v1 against Boo to close out Ascent 13-11 and put PRX in the driver's seat heading into map two.

Next up was Bind, with both teams running different variations of double-Duelist. Heretics opted for the newly named mosquito composition with Waylay and Yoru, while Paper Rex ran Raze and Yoru instead. Paper Rex won the first pistol, and a failed clear from RieNs led to a bonus conversion. Heretics needed a round soon, so they converted the next round as a thrifty win, but Paper Rex remained on top thanks to f0rsakeN.

Heretics won some post-plants afterward, but PatMen got four to extend the lead. It did end up much closer than the start of the half showed, with Paper Rex only up 7-5 at the half. Heretics won the pistol to tie the map back up at 7-7 quickly, but d4v41 prevented the bonus conversion to keep PRX on top. Heretics managed another thrifty win, which rebuilt some confidence as they took the lead from Paper Rex late on Bind. Just as it looked like it was another 13-11, Wo0t won a big 1v1 against Jinggg to effectively end the map 13-9 and take the series to Lotus.

Lotus would end it, and both teams needed a better performance than their previous try. Paper Rex continued running their double-Duelist while Team Heretics ran their variation of the double-Sentinel with Chamber and Deadlock. Once again, Wo0t was the star as Heretics won the first pistol, but Paper Rex prevented that bonus round win. Even as the economy evened out, Heretics were winning very clean retakes. After a timeout. The savior for PRX was PatMen , as they got their first lead up 5-4. As d4v41 got the Operator and started to punish mound aggression from Wo0t, Paper Rex ended the first half up 8-4. Jinggg won the second pistol in a 1v1 versus Wo0t to put even more pressure on Heretics, and converting the bonus was the cherry on top.

That extended the lead to 12-4, and Paper Rex wasn't going to throw away the lead this time. Paper Rex won the map 13-4, the series 2-1, and kept their Champions hopes alive by eliminating Team Heretics.

The best player in the win was f0rsakeN, who ended the series with a 1.22 match rating, 53 kills, 245 ACS, 78% KAST, and 153 ADR on the Controller role.

With this win, Paper Rex will play in the lower semifinals against the victors of the MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #1 zekken Zachary Patrone tex Ian Botsch Mazino Roberto Rivas Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos and DRX DRX Korea Rank #3 Hermes Ahn Byeong-wook (안병욱) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) match. As for Team Heretics, their VCT 2025 season is over with a 5th-6th place finish at Valorant Champions 2025.