"Their pace and their rhythm was too fast for us": KRÜ Esports coach Atom after their defeat against Paper Rex in Valorant Champions 2023 (Exclusive)

Valorant Champions 2023 has delivered some of the most competitive VCT matches. Day 4 of the event saw three matches. The first was between Paper Rex and KRÜ Esports. Paper Rex came into the event as one of the favorites and ended up giving a great performance. They defeated KRÜ Esports by 2-0 in the Bo3 (best-of-three) series.

The second match was between EDward Gaming and Giants Gaming. The Bo3 series went all the way as both teams won on their map picks. Eventually, EDward Gaming was able to continue their peak form from Tokyo and closed out the series by 2-1.

The day's final match was between the champions, Fnatic, and the team that gave the biggest VCT upset match, Bilibili Gaming. Fnatic was able to win the first map smoothly. On the second map, Lotus saw BiliBili Gaming actually making strides and making Fnatic sweat.

That said, Fnatic closed it out and won the series by 2-0. After the first match, Sportskeeda Esports got the opportunity to talk to KRÜ Esports coach, Atom.

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KRÜ Esports' coach Atom talks about their loss against Paper Rex in Valorant Champions 2023

KRÜ Esports had a very tough 2023. They were eliminated early on in LOCK//IN and weren't able to win a single match in the Americas League. However, they shocked the world with their undefeated run in the LCQ (Last Chance Qualifiers) and qualified for Valorant Champions 2023.

Given KRÜ's performance in the LCQ, their match against Paper Rex was expected to be a competitive Valorant match. While there were a few glimpses of that, Paper Rex was able to win the Bo3 series quite swiftly. Sportskeeda Esports approached KRÜ's coach, Atom, to ask him about their experience playing against Paper Rex and where they might have lacked in the overall series. Here's what he had to say,

"It was really hard for us to adapt to them or to know how we should react and play against their playstyle. Their pace and their rhythm was too fast for us and we just got run over."

KRÜ Esports first created history with their monumental run in Valorant Champions 2021. They have a chance to bring it back, and despite the 2-0 scoreline, the team certainly showed a lot of potential in certain moments in their first match.

Their next match will be an elimination one. They will be facing EMEA's Giants Gaming for their tournament lives. This match will take place on August 11 at 12 pm PDT/ 9 pm CEST/ 12:30 am IST (next day).