The wait is finally over. The second international of the year is upon us. The 12 best teams of the world are currently reunited in Canada for Masters Toronto, the penultimate chance to accrue VCT points before Champions rolls around.

Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov kicked off the hostilities with a 2-0 win over Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #3 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius on Pearl and Icebox. Pearl was a no-nonsense win from PRX, dropping just one round in a ballistic 13-1 opening result. Icebox was a much closer map, but Heretics weren't able to fully reply to their Pacific counterpart and dropped the second map 13-9, and with it the match 2-0.

Paper Rex pose at media day (Photo by Stefan Wisnoski/Riot Games)

The first match of Masters Toronto pit Heretics against Paper Rex for only the third time in both teams' long history. Paper Rex came out on top on both occasions: the finals of a 2022 offseason invitational, and the second round of last year's Masters Madrid Swiss stage (which eliminated Heretics from competition).

In the long run, though, that loss was just a blemish in Heretics' record last year. They went on to grow into one of the best teams of 2024 after that elimination taking back-to-back second-place finishes at Masters Shanghai and Champions. Conversely, Madrid was PRX's peak last year.

Heading into Toronto, the teams seemed to be on equal footing. Both had struggled regionally to some degree, letting wins and tournament victories slip by in the lead-up to this Masters.

But once both rosters were in the server, nobody would say that.

Paper Rex decimated Heretics on the first map. Heretics were, coach neilzinho said, “sleeping” through Pearl and just couldn't get into the game. The EMEA runners-up only managed to win one round before the map came to an abrupt close, with Paper Rex taking their map pick with a 13-1 win.

Total domination is the only way to describe that map. The worst player on PRX's lineup had a 1.02 rating and nine frags. The best player on the Heretics side had a 0.54 rating and eight kills.

Adding insult to injury like this is flat-out mean.

On Icebox, Heretics put up a much better fight. Paper Rex found an early lead, but Heretics quickly bit back and found their own 7-5 lead. While things were looking up, a threat still loomed over the horizon: Paper Rex entered the day with a 64% round win rate on attack since Masters Bangkok.

And as soon as the sides changed, the momentum shift was visible. Paper Rex just won round after round after round. It took six from the Pacific reps before Heretics finally got on the board, adding on two rounds via retake. That was all they'd get before PRX closed out the match with a 13-9 win.

Heretics' fight reflect in the statlines, with Wo0t and benjyfishy piecing together strong showings. The former managed a 1.27 rating across 17 kills and seven assists, while the latter found five first kills in a total of 18 kills and 150 ADR.

Jinggg the magician.

Almost three years after their first match, Paper Rex continues to be a thorn in Heretics' side. The European side is yet to find a win against Paper Rex and continue their bumpy track record of recent results. Since reaching the playoffs of EMEA Stage 1, Heretics have won just two games.

Paper Rex, meanwhile, have been on a tear throughout Pacific competition. Since their lower bracket loss to Rex Regum Qeon Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Rank #5 Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh in the VCT, the team has just one loss in eight matches, and are currently sitting on a six-win streak.

But, given the Swiss format, things are far from decided for either team. Paper Rex need to fend off one more team if they are to reach the playoffs, where they'll test themselves against the four VCT regional champions.

Heretics, meanwhile, are out of second chances. One more loss and they are going home early to prepare for Stage 2. They have an extra day to recover and to try to bounce back from this loss, in preparation for their 0-1 match.