"They are in their honeymoon season" - d4v41 on Gen.G's current form, the return of Jinggg and Paper Rex's win against T1 [Exclusive]

Paper Rex started off their VCT Pacific 2024 Stage 1 campaign with a hard-fought victory against T1. This best-of-three series also marked the return of superstar Raze player Jinggg back to the Paper Rex lineup after a lengthy absence.

With Jinggg back on the roster, the APAC team looks to return to its glory days and finally try to win an international title in the VCT 2024 season.

Paper Rex, however, had a shaky showing versus T1 to kick things off with the reintegrated Jinggg. A close victory on Lotus was followed by an overtime win on Bind to secure the series with a 2-0 scoreline.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda Esports, Paper Rex's d4v41 joined us after the match to share his thoughts on the win along with other topics such as the team's lack of practice after Valorant Masters Madrid and their priority on certain Agents.

Paper Rex's d4v41 talks about the team's map pool, upcoming match against Gen.G, and more

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Q: What are your thoughts right now after the 2-0 victory against T1?

d4v41: I think it was a little bit shaky from us but I am definitely happy that we won because we recently made a roster change with Jinggg coming back. It's been a while since we played with him and I expect that it's going to be a little bit shaky in official matches. There were pretty small errors here and there but overall I am happy with the result.

Q: Before delving into the series, I want to ask your personal experience this season. How has it been so far?

d4v41: I don't think anything has gone too bad so far other than us missing out on the VCT points. Apart from that, I think I am happy with the results.

Q: The main talking point coming before this series was the return of Jinggg. How has it been reintegrating him into the lineup? Did the team have enough time to practice with him considering the relatively small break after Masters Madrid?

d4v41: We don't really have enough prep at the moment I would say. We had less than a week because we also had a team break after VCT Masters Madrid. We all went to our hometowns and had a quick reset after the tournament. After Jinggg's return, we had four days of actual practice.

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Q: Talking about the series, I want to focus some attention on Lotus and the close 13-10 win you guys managed to pull off. At VCT Masters Madrid, Paper Rex did not win a single game on Lotus. What went right for the team in this particular matchup considering it was T1's map pick?

d4v41: We understand the map well. Even though we are a little bit shaky on the Attack half, Lotus has always been one of our favorites and even our best map to pick after the removal of Fracture and Pearl. We preferred to pick Lotus before Sunset came into the map pool after which the latter started to become our most picked map. Our Lotus has always been good and it was reflected in our win today.

Q: Paper Rex has had a high priority on picking Skye, despite her nerfs, on maps except Sunset. Is there a particular reason behind this priority or is it purely based on your comfort and the team's as well?

d4v41: When it comes to Lotus, in particular, it is important to have a good support for the Duelists. We run two Duelists on this map which a lot of teams do not. I believe if we have two Duelists it is better to run Skye rather than Fade because of the flashes. Even though Skye got nerfed she is still a very powerful Agent if it's used by the right player.

Q: I want to know if there have been any variations to the team's playstyle on Sunset after the return of Jinggg. Has the roster cooked up anything interesting and special?

d4v41: I'll give you a little teaser and say that we haven't done anything that ambitious because every match is important to win in VCT Pacific Stage 1. I don't think we are that ambitious for now because we also have to get our synergy together so I would say we are not too ambitious in this tournament.

Q: It's pretty common knowledge that Paper Rex does not have a fixed IGL with everyone giving their ideas and strategies. Despite this, do you think certain players on the roster have a stronger voice on particular maps?

d4v41: I think it depends on the map. We also don't have this kind of system yet. However, some maps are favorites for certain players. When they like the map more they naturally tend to understand more about the map. Some players tend to voice up more when they are comfortable with the map.

I choose to give suggestions and opinions more on Lotus since I am playing Skye and I am kind of the middleman in the team composition.

Q: Your next opponent is Gen.G whom you have already established a sort of rivalry with early in the season. What are your thoughts heading into this matchup with Jinggg back in the lineup?

d4v41: It's good that Jinggg is back but Gen.G has also been playing very well. I think they are in their honeymoon season. I think the team that can stop them is probably us but we are not going to put too much expectations on ourselves.

We are just going to try our best and shut them down but it will be hard since Gen.G probably has the best form in Pacific right now.

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Q: Any final words that you would like to share with the Paper Rex fans supporting the team and you?

d4v41: Thank you to all the Paper Rex fans for always supporting us. We appreciate the support of the fans who came to the venue today as well. We saw a lot of fan signs from them and it's great to see them. Hopefully, we can get to see them in the upcoming matches as well. Thank you.

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