Paper Rex have become the first team to qualify for the Valorant Esports World Cup semifinals after knocking out Sentines of the competition. The Valorant Masters Toronto champions clinched a spot in the next round after 13-3 and 13-9 wins on Icebox and Sunset, respectively.
Both Paper Rex and Sentinels met one month ago at the Valorant Masters Toronto Upper Bracket Semifinals. Back then, the eventual champions took down the Americans after wins on Split and Sunset. Today, the Asian roster has emerged victorious once again.
The series began on Paper Rex's pick, Icebox, where the Pacific side claimed a one-sided 13-3 win after winning nine of their twelve defenses. On attack, the Asian roster was unstoppable as they won the four rounds played in the second half of the map.
Finally, Sentinels' pick was a more contested map. After Paper Rex finished their attacking half with an 8-4 lead, the Americans ended up tying the scoreboard as they won five of their initial six attacks. However, after equalizing the score, Paper Rex retook the lead and eventually won the map without dropping a single round.
The best player of the game was Wang "Jinggg" Jing with an ACS of 253 and 37 kills across both maps. He was Paper Rex's best player on both Icebox and Sunset. However, it's worth mentioning Sentinels' Zachary "zekken" Patrone's efforts. After a poor performance on Icebox, the American averaged an ACS of 331 on Sunset while also securing 26 kills for his team.
Paper Rex's next match in the Valorant Esports World Cup will be against the winner of the series between Fnatic and Karmine Corp. If Fnatic make it through to the semifinals, we will have a Valorant Masters Toronto grand final replay less than a month after Paper Rex won its first Masters championship.
For more information about Valorant and the Esports World Cup, don't forget to bookmark the site and follow us through our social media pages.