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The VCT Pacific League is almost halfway through. The ten participating teams have been giving it their all so far in the tournament to make it into the playoffs and confirm their tickets to the year's only Masters event in Tokyo, Japan. Each team has so far played four matches, with DRX and Gen.G having won all while Talon Esports and Detonation FocusMe having lost all.
Week 4 of VCT Pacific League kicked off with a promising showing between DRX and a Paper Rex that had looked solid in their Week 3 match against T1. Coming into the series, the Singaporean squad looked shaky right from the start.
The strong early and mid-rounding, they had displayed against T1, seemed much weaker against DRX. The team made a lot of mistakes on both Ascent. They tried to bring the series back with a much closer second map but were not successful in pushing DRX to a third map in the end.
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PRX something speaks about their loss against DRX in VCT Pacific League match
Abhipsito Das of Sportskeeda Esports had the opportunity to interview Ilya "something" Petrov, the latest addition to Paper Rex's Valorant roster, after their VCT Pacific League match on April 15, 2023. The Russian esports athlete spoke about settling into the new team, his favorite map, and some of the ideas the team was going for in the match against DRX.
Q. You are the latest addition to Paper Rex's VCT lineup. How have you been getting along with the team both in-game and outside?
something: All is well so far. The practice has been going well so far. Outside, the team respects me and there are jokes. It’s all good.
Q. You have one of the coolest in-game names in the tournament. What was the idea behind it?
something: I can’t really say something about it. [laughs]
Q. What is your favorite Agent to play (other than Jett) and what is your favorite map to play on?
something: My favorite map is Ascent. But today’s Ascent was so bad for me.
I really like playing Raze, but in Paper Rex I only play Jett now.
Q. How would you say your experience playing with Sengoku in the Japanese league differs from playing with Paper Rex in the VCT Pacific League?
something: The difference between Paper Rex and Sengoku is mostly that players have more experience in other games like CS [at the former]. They also have more tournament experience. At Paper Rex, we only do maybe 7-8 scrims per day, but there is a lot more impact from them.
Q. D4v41 had mentioned last week that DRX was like PRX’s Kryptonite. You played against them for the first time, what do you think makes them so formidable?
something: DRX is really good at both the early-game and mid-rounding. They don’t give away kills very easily. They are a very disciplined team. It is very hard to play against them. They always use drones, flashes, and other stuff, which makes them very powerful.
Q. You seemed to be taking a lot of individual fights on the defense side on Ascent during your VCT Pacific match today. What was the idea behind those despite having a lot of supportive utility to back you up?
something: The idea is to rush them. For example, I go to B-main alone and take a fight. If I get a kill, then good, if I don’t then just go back and try something else. Then we try taking middle or another site. Usually, I just get the kills and we can execute our plans.
[So would you say your aim was not working on point today? Because most of these executions looked really off.]
something: It’s not because of aim. It’s just that you cannot do this in the early round every time.
Q. On paper, the double Duelist composition seems to work much better for Paper Rex than the compositions with one Duelist. What is your take on the matter?
something: I like playing with a second Duelist, with someone else playing another Duelist who can go in first.
Q. Paper Rex plays against Global Esports next week in the VCT Pacific League. Have you had the chance to look at some of their tapes? What do you think about their playstyle?
something: Last match they played very well against DRX. Both the maps were really close. SkRossi will most likely play. I have no predictions. I guess, we will just have to see.
