REACTION: T1 out of Pacific Playoffs, PRX march on

In a do-or-die series between Masters holders T1 and fan favourites Paper Rex, the latter continued their season’s turnaround to claim a 2-1 victory and move on in the playoffs lower bracket. As a result of the loss, T1 are eliminated and are out of contention for Masters Toronto qualification.

The opening map started perfectly for T1, making light work of PRX to win 13-3. But momentum swung completely in map two with Paper Rex winning 13-4 on Ascent before continuing the stomp in map three with a 13-2 that secured the series victory.

T1 reacts to elimination

Speaking to the media following the loss, T1 head coach Yoon “Autumn” Eu-teum explained how it was “very saddening to end the split this way” and “feels bad to the players and especially to the fans”.

T1’s collapse following their Bangkok win has, in part, been explained as a ‘hangover’ caused by fatigue from the event. Autumn was asked for his thoughts on this narrative directly:

“Time did play a factor and this year it was a bit hard because Riot changed the map pool. I felt like we didn’t have much time in preparation after winning [Masters Bangkok], and Tejo was a kind of buffed up character and we didn’t have much time to prepare.”

On regrouping for Stage 2, Autumn asserted that he has no worries as “Tejo will be nerfed during Stage 2 and it’ll be better for the team overall”.

T1’s Kim “stax” Gu-taek was also confident that his side will fight back in Stage 2 given that there’s “enough time to prepare”.

“I thought when we practised that we did well, but it didn’t show through through in today’s match and I felt like my personal performance wasn’t that high, which was also kind of disappointing.”

Paper Rex “expected a tougher game”

The win for Paper Rex marks their third successive victory in VCT Pacific, though given the strength of opposition and the nature of the second and third maps it’s by far their most impressive.

After the win, Alexandre “alecks” Sallé was offered the opportunity to give his thoughts on the series, admitting that he expected Fracture to be much closer.

“We will quickly look at Fracture tonight as it didn’t go as planned, I think we expected to give them a tougher game. But I’m very thankful that we managed to close Ascent and Lotus.”

Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto also spoke to the media, saying that his side did a “good job” to pick up the win whilst playing confidently.

“I’m pretty confident because we’ve been like putting a lot of hard work in our practise and scrimming… we’ve been doing well. So I’m kind of excited for the next match as well and I believe that we can try to win this lower bracket”.

The flex player also revealed how he didn’t foresee such a dominant display against T1, explaining how he didn’t expect to be “wrecking” T1 “so hard” on the latter maps.

Paper Rex to face BOOM

With victory over T1 propelling PRX onwards in the lower bracket, they now face another do-or-die series in order to keep going.

Next up is BOOM Esports, the side who took the group stage by storm to win all five series and top the tougher Group Alpha despite having failed to claim a single victory during Kickoff earlier in the year.

Should Paper Rex come out victorious, then they’ll face either DRX or TALON in order to earn qualification to Masters Toronto and make their way back to the global stage.