f0rsaken's 101 kills pull the Paper Rex train to Masters Santiago

Off the back of one of the single-greatest individual performances the Pacific region has ever seen, 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 Rex Regum Qeon Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Rank #6 Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh in the VCT Pacific Kickoff Lower Final 3-1 to punch the region's last ticket to Masters Santiago.

f0rsakeN dropped 101 kills in four maps, going +43 across the entire series on three different agent roles to not just prove his value as one of the world's greatest flex players, but also one of the greatest to touch the game.

The series was played out on Haven, Corrode, Breeze, and Pearl. PRX won Haven 13-8, RRQ won Corrode 13-10, PRX won Breeze 13-10, and PRX won Pearl 13-10, leaving the decider map of Bind unnecessary.

Play began on PRX's map pick, Haven. The team has gained global attention for the way that it has reinvented its comp to fit in Phoenix and Chamber, a trend that has reached as far as Americas with G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #2 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio leaf Nathan Orf .

To start, RRQ looked to be in a groove. A would-be bonus was the only round RRQ dropped in a 6-1 start to the map. In a tweaked comp of its own, RRQ moved away from the Omen-Viper-Killjoy comp, instead opting for a double-Duelist look with Cypher as the Sentinel.

PRX responded with more proactivity, narrowing that gap to just two rounds by the time the teams switched sides. Once on attack, PRX had the chance to show off the strengths of its new comp. PRX overwhelmed the defending RRQ, led by f0rsakeN , who picked up 14 of his 23 kills on that side. RRQ, playing with a comp it has not touched since Stage 2 of last year, seemed to struggle with the gaps left around the map, opening the door for PRX to go on a clean nine-round sweep on attack to win 13-8.

With Paper Rex's perma bans this year being Abyss and Corrode, the best-of-five format forced PRX to face its demons on RRQ's pick of Corrode. Immediately, reasons for PRX's unwillingness to play the map were shown. Early on, RRQ thoroughly outclassed its opponents on the map, exposing what seemed to be a fundamental struggle to play as a team on it.

Once again, RRQ seized an early 6-1 lead, which resulted in PRX head coach alecks calling back-to-back timeouts in an effort to fix what seemed to be a lack of general discipline. After managing just three rounds on defense and then the pistol round to start attack, PRX used a force-buy to try and flip the script, which earned a slight boost of momentum.

PRX won six of the next seven rounds after the pistol, closing what was once an insurmountable-looking RRQ lead to 11-9. With all of the momentum against them, RRQ managed to convert a round on a low-buy, thanks in part to a string of mistakes from PRX, to reach map point. Map point was converted within two rounds, helping RRQ even the map score.

Breeze, PRX's map pick, saw f0rsakeN shifted onto the Yoru role while something was on Jett. Meanwhile, Monyet on Neon continued to steal the crosshairs of PRX players, opening angles for his teammates to find kills.

PRX played a proactive defense half, taking control of mid and using the likes of something and f0rsaken to make mid their shooting range. An early start helped PRX snowball its way into a dominant 7-1 start, and throughout the course of the half, self-inflicted mistakes were the only thing keeping the score tight. Up 8-4, PRX won the pistol round to open its attack half, but the mistakes continued, starting with RRQ converting an anti-eco armed with five pistols.

RRQ continued to chip away at the lead, but with a six-round cushion, PRX eventually closed things out, managing a 13-10 win to get to within one map of closing out the series.

RRQ's pick of Pearl promised to ring some good and bad memories for both teams. PRX fans may remember Jemkin tearing apart PRX with the Outlaw on attack as part of a 10-2 half earlier in the event. Of all the maps in PRX's pool, Pearl has been the shakiest apart from Abyss and Corrode.

In its third different appearance on Pearl, PRX fielded its third different comp, with this one seemingly a direct counter-comp to RRQ's comp with Jemkin on Chamber and crazyguy on Tejo. f0rsaken played on Veto to expand his ever-growing agent pool, while Jinggg was on his comfort pick of Raze.

Off the bat, PRX seemed shaky. A pistol round win, which was PRX's fourth of the series, was followed by yet another RRQ thrifty. Four straight rounds followed, with RRQ piecing together a strong run of rounds before PRX finally adjusted its defensive approach. A more proactive approach saw the teams push up both flanks, which ultimately ended with them narrowing the lead to 7-5 by halftime.

Once on attack, PRX did well to navigate the map, beginning with a four-man push through Connector into Defender spawn. A combination of heroics from f0rsaken and playing to avoid Jemkin's Operator helped PRX to steadily pile up attack rounds.

With both teams' buys balancing on a needle, a nine-man brawl near the B site ended with invy standing strong against three RRQ players to help break the RRQ economy.

A PRX win against a lower RRQ buy followed, and after PRX converted against the lower buy, all that was left was for the Masters Toronto MVP to do his thing.

A career-defining match for f0rsaken saw the flex player claim 101 kills through four maps without overtime, on pace to break not just t3xture 's 105-kill Pacific Bo5 kills record, but marteen 's global record of 126 if the series went to a fifth map. Jemkin had a team-leading 79 kills in the loss, picking up 21 kills with the Operator in the process.

RRQ, who entered the weekend one Bo5 away from qualifying from Masters Santiago, now walks away with one Championship Point as the fourth-placed team in the region. Meanwhile, PRX will add onto its record as the Pacific team with the most Masters apperance, set to make its eighth all-time in Santiago.