F0rsaken =/= forsaken
ORG OVERVIEW
-Paper Rex was founded in January 2020 by Nikhil "nikH" Hathiramani, and entered with a CSGO team.
-The team initially played in SEA qualifiers in the online era of CSGO with moderate success, but never made it to any major or offline events due to CSGO’s small size in SEA and the suspension of offline tournaments due to the pandemic
-In July 2020 PRX announced their VALORANT division while still retaining their CSGO roster
ROSTER HISTORY
-The 2020 inaugural roster for PRX’s VALORANT team was:
-Brxndon
-Egoist
-Retla
-JdFaker
-pndmonia-This initial roster struggled throughout the ignition series, frequently failing to make it out of groups.
-Headed into first strike, the team released JdFaker and pndmonia and began to trial a slew of players going into the qualifiers
-calel, Moosey, Shiba, benaf, and FANE all received trial periods, with Retla taking the place of Shiba for most of the qualifying matches. They would qualify for playoffs easily.
-However, ahead of playoffs, PRX would suspend their entire VALORANT roster, citing a “Breach of Integrity.” An official statement following the suspension would state:
In light of recent information, we have reason to believe that certain individuals on our Valorant roster were involved with activities that go against the meaning of fair competition and integrity of an esports professional.```
-With the suspension of their entire roster, PRX would not play in first strike at all, and looked to enter the start of VCT with a new roster2021
-Ahead of VCT, PRX would transfer their CSGO roster to VALORANT, starting with the core of:
-Tommy
-mindfreak
-f0rsaken
-Benkai
-d4v41-In their first outing, PRX would get knocked out quickly after only 4 matches played, with losses to Timing Monster Gaming and Team SMG
-The roster would see greater success through the second set of challengers, but with some losses in the MY/SG bracket on their way to the Grand Finals, where they would get swept by Kingsmen
-In stage 2, they would make it all the way to SEA Challengers finals, but lose in the upper final to X10 and the lower final to Full Sense, which cut their chances of attending Masters 2 short. However, the team had proved themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the SEA region
-Over the break, Tommy would be swapped for Shiba, and would roll into the final challengers split of the year looking to attend Masters Berlin
-After some stumbles in the qualifier, PRX would cruise into playoffs in the final challengers of the year, and make it out of challengers finals groups with 2 wins and a draw
-In challengers finals they would secure a spot in the Grand Finals, and a spot in Berlin. They would finish second after losing to Bren in the Grand Finals
-Due to visa issues, Bren would be unable to attend Masters 3, making PRX the sole representative of SEA
-After an early loss where they pushed Vision Strikers to their limits, they would play a tight match against SMB in the elimination match, and would get sent home in 13th-16th place
-Due to their high placements throughout the year, they had earned a spot at APAC LCQ, and swapped Shiba for Jinggg
-In the APAC LCQ, They would win their opening match to GE, but lose consecutive matches to Northeption and Damwon gaming, ending their VCT season
2022
-PRX chose to retain their roster ahead of the 2022 season, and proved to be dominant in their run through the first challengers stage of the year
-The team beat Xerxia in the grand final of playoffs to secure the #1 seed of APAC, and a playoff bye at Iceland
-In Iceland, they would be sent to the lower bracket early by DRX, before beating Guard and G2 in the lower bracket to keep their run alive
-Interestingly, PRX began to be known for their crazy comps around this time, and beat G2 on Bind with f0rsaken on Yoru, which was the first time Yoru had won internationally
-Unfortunately, the teams run was cut short by Zeta Division, who were on a cinderella run of their own, ending in 4th place
-In the second challengers, PRX again cruised towards the #1 APAC seed, securing a spot at Masters Copenhagen alongside Xerxia, as well as another bye into playoffs
-In playoffs, they would beat Guild and Fnatic to make it to the upper final, and as one of the first teams to play in front of a live crowd in a VCT event
-In the upper final they would beat reigning champions OpTic, but would fall in the Grand Finals to FPX, a team that were on a legendary lower bracket run of their own. They finished 2nd at Masters Copenhagen, the highest international placement of any APAC team in VALORANT to date
-At Champions, they would win their opener against EDG, before losing to Leviatan and Liquid, ending their VCT season in 9th-12th place at Champions
-Last week, PRX played in the GXR India invitational, and beat Team Heretics in the Grand Finals to win the entire event
ROSTER MOVES
-PRX have chosen to retain their entire roster ahead of the VCT 2023 season
-JdFaker has been brought back as a manager, and Sleepy was signed as head of esports programming
-CigaretteS, a former Z11 player and Xerixa stand-in, was brought in as a 6th man
-PRX in 2023 will be:
-Jinggg
-mindfreak
-Benkai
-f0rsaken
-d4v41
-CigaretteSALL OTHER ORGS
-https://www.vlr.gg/157308/franchised-orgs-megathread
Discord