Asian domination: Paper Rex lift Masters Toronto trophy

Paper Rex, hailing from the VCT Pacific region, successfully took down one of the most decorated rosters in VALORANT history, Fnatic, in the grand final of Masters Toronto to lift the trophy.

This win spells the fourth consecutive international tournament that the Asian regions have claimed. It began with Gen.G Esports winning Masters Shanghai, then EDward Gaming for Champions 2025, followed by T1 in Masters Bangkok earlier this year.

Paper Rex has been a mainstay in the international VALORANT stage for almost as long as the scene has existed. Naturally, this means that they are a regional powerhouse. For these years, though, they were unable to convert their regional successes and strengths into an international championship.

VCT 2025: Pacific Stage 1 saw Paper Rex slightly crumple. In fact, they almost did not make it out of the Group Stage. However, they successfully made the lower bracket run work and scraped by just enough to qualify for Masters Toronto.

They came in as Pacific's #3 seed. They took down (almost) everyone in their way: Team Heretics, Team Liquid, G2 Esports, Sentinels, and Wolves Esports. All to make it to the grand final against EMEA's best: Fnatic. The odds were against PRX's favor.

Paper Rex gets two bans thanks to coming from the upper bracket.

Fnatic started off the grand final swinging. They got the first four rounds on Defense comfortably, making Paper Rex fans shift in their seats a bit. However, the tides turned on round five, and FNC did not see another round win in the first half. PRX led at halftime, 8-4.

When the sides switched, rounds became more labored for Paper Rex. FNC eventually caught up, but an insane play from Khalish "d4v41" Rusyaidee's Sage and Wang "Jinggg" Jie's Raze proved to be an effective and flavorful ending to the map.

The insane strategy blew viewers' minds, including that of Tyzon "TenZ" Ngo. Volume warning on the clip; the play was just that good.

This time, PRX found the early lead. By the time the half rolled over, though, Fnatic had evened the game out.

Exciting things happened in the second half. With Fnatic now on Defense, it seemed that the map was going to be closed out briefly. The EMEA top seed found themselves at 12-7, but PRX forced the overtime by winning the final five rounds of the map.

Overtime gave fans an amazing show, but FNC won out with the final map score being 17-15.

Pearl is an unfamiliar battlefield for Fnatic. The last time they played it was on January 24, 2025, against Natus Vincere during the main event of VCT EMEA. Fnatic has perma-banned Pearl for the entirety of Masters Toronto.

Despite all of this, they managed to find a small lead in the first half at 7-5. They continued to dominate the pistol rounds throughout this matchup, widening the gap to 9-5. After this, though, they would only get one round win while Paper Rex's W gaming turn out to be superior once again. PRX were now at the brink of lifting the trophy after taking Pearl 13-10.

Next, the teams clashed on Lotus. PRX acquired an evasive pistol round, but Fnatic thanks to them forcing an Outlaw buy. The rest of the game was equally as close — both teams unrelenting. Paper Rex wanted to bring the train to its final station, while Fnatic did their best to work toward the opposite.

Nearing the end of the second half, Fnatic was up 12-11. Paper Rex brought it back just in time on round 24 to bring the map to overtime.

This overtime was not as dragged out as it was in map 2, though. PRX swiftly took the win, finally washing off the epithet of "the best team that has never won."

For Fnatic, though, this was one more trophy that they couldn't bring home.

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