Nongshim RedForce cooks Paper Rex alive to win Masters Santiago

In the grand finals of Masters Santiago, 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) defeated 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 3-0 in the most dominant grand finals in VCT franchising history. In the all-Pacific matchup between an Ascension team and the previous Masters victor, Nongshim earned the trophy and the best start to a season in VCT.

Starting on Corrode, Paper Rex opted to run the solo Waylay with the Vyse to try and stop Dambi on his signature Neon. PRX won a chaotic retake to earn the first pistol round, but Nongshim nailed some clean shots with a Bandit to convert the eco. The start could have been dire from PRX, but d4v41 shot three down to clutch the third round. An early timeout from Nongshim worked wonders, winning a clean round after forcing two big ultimates from Paper Rex. Even then, Paper Rex looked strong on defense when something bought the Operator, entering the half up 8-4.

Nongshim needed a pistol and antieco win to bring the map back within reach, which the team converted. Paper Rex stopped the bonus conversion after, but not without losing three guns. Then, Xross sniped a clean four kills to tie the map at 9-9.

The form from Xross was suddenly cranked up to eleven, as Nonghsim continued a near-perfect defense to take the lead late. Paper Rex finally won an attack round after the bonus round denial, forcing multiple late ties on Corrode. At 11-11, Nongshim played the spam game against a Viper ultimate perfectly to reach map point first, and secured the map right after to win Corrode 13-11.

Next up was Split, putting Paper Rex in a position where it needed to win map two to avoid having to reverse sweep. Paper Rex ran its version of double-Duelist with Raze and Yoru, while Nongshim ran its standard Neon and Yoru. Nongshim won the first pistol off an aggressive mid hold, and Ivy snapped to four people to earn a bonus round conversion. An early timeout mattered little, as Nongshim stormed out to 6-0. A second timeout led to the first attack side round from PRX, as Jinggg secured an important 1v2. Nongshim only gave its opponents scraps, entering the half up 9-3.

Paper Rex was now the team that needed the second-half pistol, but it was denied as Nongshim reached double-digits on Split in round 13. The comeback hopes were truly dashed when Ivy aced Paper Rex to reach map point up 12-3.

Split ended 13-4 for Nongshim, putting Paper Rex in the position of needing to reverse-sweep a team that had yet to lose in 2026. Even worse, next was Abyss, a map that Paper Rex has not played this season. Though all hope was not gone, as Nongshim showed weakness on Abyss when Dambi moved from Neon to Waylay, at least earlier on in the tournament. Nongshim defeated NRG on Abyss, moving Ivy to Cypher, and this change might have saved the tournament for Nongshim.

For Abyss, the Cypher change remained for Nongshim, while Paper Rex opted for Vyse with Waylay and Yoru. Nongshim continued its dominance with a quick flank through mid to catch Paper Rex off guard, achieving another first pistol win. The antieco was close to getting flipped towards Paper Rex, but it instead simply turned into a weak bonus round for Nongshim that the team lost. Despite that round loss, Nongshim once again jumped to a quick lead that forced a timeout from PRX. Xross kept his form up, sniping something constantly in the final map, as Nongshim reached a 7-1 lead. Paper Rex only managed one more round in the half, ending the half by getting ninja defused.

Paper Rex was praying for a pistol win, and earned it to extend its tournament lives ever so slightly. Those hopes were short-lived as Paper Rex lost another antieco, giving Nongshim the economic boost to end the map 13-3 and the series 3-0.

Nongshim completed its Cinderella run from Premier all the way to the top of the world, winning in Santiago over a regional powerhouse. Rb earned a Masters title after years of trying on DRX, while the rest of the roster earned its title in an unprecedented one-sided fashion. As for the player of the series, that was easily Xross, who ended the series with a 1.57 match rating, 60 kills, 280 ACS, and 183 ADR. However, the tournament MVP was Dambi, who played some outstanding Neon across the event to win his first trophy.