This is a text summary of the press conference. The full video can be found here.

The uncrowned kings of Pacific finally emerged victorious after their third attempt at an international trophy. Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 PatMen Patrick Mendoza Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov talked about their journey to the top in the post-match press conference of Masters Toronto's grand finals.

Jinggg, how does it feel to finally lift your first trophy when only a couple of years ago it seemed like your career had potentially been cut short?

“It definitely feels great. This is not something that I expected to happen so fast. I'm really happy and proud of my team for still believing in me even after I took a break [to] get back into top form. I'm overall just very happy right now.”

f0rsakeN, d4v41, alecks, this team moved from CS over to this game… As you guys now begin to process the achievement, for you guys specifically, did you ever think you would ever be able to make it happen, and in doing so what do you feel helped you guys individually-speaking?

alecks: “First and foremost I think the opportunity was the thing that was lacking in CS. Not to say that we weren't having good [results] in CS anyways, but when we moved over to Valorant it was an open circuit in that point in time and we had the opportunity to show what we could do. I think making Berlin was the turning point for us. After we scrimmed everyone overseas we knew that we were at least able to get to the same level as these foreign teams… As soon as we made our first finals, we knew that the chance was there. I had full confidence that we would make another one and another one and another one and that eventually we would win.”

d4v41: “I think it's the same for me. I don't think I expected to be here where I am today. Obviously you put in work and believe in your dream. When you fight the international teams you feel… ‘Oh!' you're actually not that far from them. From there, I believe that we could be who we are today.”

f0rsakeN: “I [didn't expect] us to be here, actually. Everything happens for a reason. I think it's a miracle… I still can't believe it.”

Considering this team's history and finally breaking that second place curse, do you think it'll be a lot easier moving forward heading into Stage 2 and potentially even Champions, maybe even closing out a lot more of the grand finals you guys could potentially show in?

alecks: “I don't think it'll be easier. I think every final has a different story, so to speak. Stage 2, we're going back to Pacific not as T1, [but] as us, as winners this year. I think the whole Pacific will be [galvanized] by this. I think anyone in Pacific knows ‘Hey if they can do it, we can do it, too.' So it's gonna be a very difficult Stage 2 for us. We're ready for the challenge. Regarding the rest of the events, my goal is always going to be the same: try to qualify for everything and then see what happened in the event. It's not gonna change.”

mindfreak has been with the team since the beginning. During Stage 1 you made the tough decision to sub him out for PatMen. Can you speak to what mindfreak has done for the team behind the scenes during this time and his contributions?

alecks: “I understand his point of view, everyone wants to play. Him deciding not to make a fuss about it and just getting on with it is a very difficult thing to do. I'm very glad that he decided to help us even though he could have easily kicked up a fuss about it. I think what he did was very brotherly… Behind the scenes he works with the players individually, so it's usually about timings, about little things, micro stuff. Aside from that, Jason and JJ both picked up smokes roles and he had to teach them how to do it. He also watches half the games for me, so even if I watch everything he prepares half for me and I defer to him a lot because we've worked together for so long I know that whatever he thinks about we probably have the same idea… Also, he's experienced. If he says something in the tac pause everyone listens, full trust. Just very grateful for him. He basically acts as an assistant coach plus almost like a sports psychologist as well.”

What does it mean to you to have [this] level of support at an international event despite not being a “home team?”

d4v41: “It's very good that we could deliver this time despite having so many fans across the world. This time we managed to not disappoint you guys. I'm very happy we managed to do that this time. Some of you guys have been our fans for the past five years… Thank you for believing in us and hopefully we do even better from here and [you] continue to support us. I appreciate you guys.”