They say that the third time's the charm. 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 NRG NRG North America Rank #1 keiko Georgio Sanassy brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold 3-1 in the Lower Final of Masters Santiago to claim its spot in the Grand Final, reaching its second-straight Masters Grand Final.

The two teams butted heads for the third time this event, with the first meeting coming in the Swiss Stage, the second in the second round of the upper bracket, and the third time mattering the most.

The series played out on NRG's pick of Pearl, PRX's Split, NRG's Corrode, and PRX's Breeze. NRG won Pearl 13-8, and then PRX won the next three maps 13-7, 13-6, and 13-9.

Pearl started off about as back-and-forth as you could get. NRG got out to a 4-0 lead thanks to a quick start from keiko , but PRX stormed back with a four-round run of their own to tie things up. Honors were even entering halftime, but NRG played to the strengths of its comp to near perfection, leaning on Salvos, Nanoswarms, and Shock Darts to delay if not deny plants and chip away at the health bars of attacking PRX players.

PRX only managed two rounds on attack, seemingly running into the wall that was keiko and mada , who combined for 43 kills in the 13-8 win.

By way of tempo and momentum, Split played out somewhat similarly to Pearl, only this time it was PRX enjoying the better second half. At halftime, PRX's advantage was 7-5. A pistol round loss to open the second half threatened to tie the score up, but an eco round win, fueled by a 3K from invy 's Bandit, helped PRX flip the script.

PRX took that economical advantage to the bank, winning the next four rounds and only dropping one more through the end of the map through a dominant defense half, winning 13-7.

Corrode, the third map of the series, gave PRX the chance to prove another one of its reinvented comps against one of the world's best teams on the map. At Kickoff, PRX was 1-2 on the map, tooling a double-Controller, double-Duelist comp with Waylay-Phoenix and Fade as a solo Initiator. Since the start of Santiago's Swiss Stage, PRX has gone 2-1 on the map, opting to switch out the Phoenix for a Vyse in the comp and adopting a solo Waylay approach, not too different from NRG's usage of mada.

Early on, PRX seemed to find the most success when playing proactively against NRG's zero Sentinel comp, but as NRG began to work the entirety of the wide map, play grew tighter. For the third map in a row, the two teams played a tight first half, resulting in a PRX 7-5 advantage. The trend continued, as PRX dominated on its attack half.

PRX, arguably the world's most dangerous team once its players get hot, were two rounds warm into the series, and things began to fall into place. A near-shutout of its attack side helped PRX prove its reinvented Corrode comp and steal NRG's map pick, winning 13-6 and moving to one map away from sealing the series.

The fourth map of the series was Breeze, arguably the most topsy-turvy map in the current rotation. Both teams fielded identical comps, with Omen-Viper surrounded by a double-Duelist pairing of Jett and Yoru with Sova as the lone Initiator. Immediately, Paper Rex seemed to have the finish line in its sights. Deep lurks from d4v41 were a thorn in the NRG defense, as they helped color in the gray areas of the map for PRX. When the experienced player wasn't lurking, the threat of a potential lurk kept anchors on the other side of the map, granting PRX an advantage when moving forward.

PRX opened the map with six straight rounds, going on to win nine of the first 10 en route to a 9-3 halftime lead. NRG seemed down and out just a few rounds ago, but the two to end the half gave it just enough of a lifeline to work its way back in. When PRX won the second half's pistol and then prevailed over an NRG force buy, the map seemed all but over, but NRG clawed back with a scrappy buy consisting of just one rifle to win its first attack round.

Five straight rounds breathed hope into NRG, but that hope was short-lived, as Paper Rex reached map point at 12-8. With its economy at a do-or-die stage, PRX set up a spider web-like stance on the A site, shutting it down to close out the series.

skuba finished the series with match-high marks in rating and kills, finishing with 1.15 and 69, but his best efforts were not enough against the well-rounded PRX showing. While skuba and teammate mada were the only two NRG players who finished north of 60 kills, four PRX players finished with more than that mark. That group was led by d4v41's 66, f0rsaken's 64, and invy's team-high rating of 1.12.

Up next

PRX moves on to its second straight Grand Final in a Masters event, which stands to be monumental for Pacific as a region. Up against Nongshim RedForce Nongshim RedForce Korea Rank #1 Xross Jeonghwan (정환) Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민) Francis Kim Mu-bin (김무빈) Dambi Lee Hyuk-kyu (이혁규) Ivy Park Sung-hyeon (박성현) , who are undefeated in 2026 and will enter the series with a double-map ban, the series promises that the winner will mark the fourth-straight Masters winner from the Pacific region, a run that began with Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #5 Lakia Kim Jong-min (김종민) ZynX Kim Dong-ha (김동하) Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) Ash Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) in Shanghai, continued with T1 T1 Korea Rank #2 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) and PRX in Bangkok and Toronto, and will now carry on in Santiago.